[The significance of prenatal diagnosis for the creation of mother-child relationships and the mother's representation of the child].

INTRODUCTION: Contemporary researches state that the child's mental development depends on the quality of its relations with their mother starting from pregnancy. They point to those elements of maternal functioning which play a role in the mother-child interaction, decide about mother-child relation and the child functioning in various dimensions. One of them is the child's representation in mother's mind. Maternal representation of the child contains conscious and unconscious elements: fantasies, character traits, feelings towards the child, and representation herself as a mother, representation her mother, child's father and other's.

THE AIM OF THE STUDY: To demonstrate the results of studies on the significance of medical treatment for the creation of the mother's representation of the child and for mother-child relationship. The influence of amniocentiesis and routine ultrasound scans in the first trimester of pregnancy was analysed.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound visualization of foetus increase womens' confidence in their childcare abilities, strengthen the relationship between mother and child, and intensify positive emotions towards the child. The mother begins to treat the child as a separate individual. However, when the treatment is aimed toward detecting fetal abnormalities, the situation becomes different. Women with medical orders for prenatal examination more frequently suffered from negative emotions related to the risk of discovering pathological changes in the foetus. As a result, they were more likely to experience anxiety for the child's health and the economic situation for their families. They identified themselves with the role ofa parent to a lesser degree and smaller number of them treated the child as a separate individual.