[Psychosomatic aspects of pregnancy, parturition and puerperium (author's transl)].

Pregnancy, delivery and post-partum period represent not only a special physical strain, but also an extra-ordinary psychic stress. Defective developments and neuroses, especially in the sexual field, as well as improperly adjusted current conflicts, can lead to somatic disturbances. The present-day situation is particularly characterized by the dual role played by the modern woman in society, and the resulting ambivalence of her attitude toward maternity. Over and above this, the technicalization of modern medicine can be associated with a loss of the human relationship between the patient and the physician, so that the patient gets the impression of being at the mercy of an inhuman apparatus. Hence, it is one of the fundamental problems of modern obstetrics not to transgress the limits where technicalization defeats its own purpose and becomes more harmful than useful. Although it cannot be the aim of psychosomatic training in obstetrics and gynecology to train the gynecologist in such a manner that he can also practise formal psychotherapy, it will become more and more important in future to expand our traditionally biologically oriented method of working by the aspect of the interactional and psychosocial fields of life.