Surrogacy: The experience of Greek commissioning women

Background: Available studies on surrogacy are extremely limited. Findings suggest that surrogacy is experienced as problem free, with a significant number of commissioning mothers maintaining contact with the surrogates over time. Aim: To explore the experiences of Greek commissioning women regarding the surrogacy arrangement and birth of a child through surrogacy. Methods: The data of this study were collected from 7 intended mothers who had either a long history of infertility or serious health problems. Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and analysed employing content analysis. Findings: The analysis of the women's accounts revealed three themes: (a) a shared journey, (b) the birth of a long-awaited child, and (c) the surrogacy disclosure. The surrogacy process became the women's affairs, with their partners offering backstage support. A very close bond was developed with the surrogates, characterised by daily contacts and care-giving behaviours. While this bond was abruptly discontinued after the child's birth, it was interiorised with all participants being grateful to their surrogate. The timing and content of the surrogacy disclosure to family and child(ren) were carefully chosen by participants, who avoided providing information when egg donation was involved. Conclusion: Findings are reassuring for women who want to parent a child through a surrogate arrangement, and suggest that the availability of counselling services may help intended mothers to cope with disclosure issues. © 2015 Australian College of Midwives

Socialization strategies during infancy. Middle-class mother-infant interactions in different European countries

European middle class families can be considered to emphasize psychological autonomy in their socialization strategies. This implies to rely on face to face contact as the primary channel of communication, embellished conversations and extensive object stimulataion. Other parenting systems like body contact and body stimulation are supposed to play minor roles. This paper is going to report about studies comparing mother - infant free play interactional situations (with infants three months of age) in the home situation. Whereas the mothers in different German cities follow the prototypical patterns described earlier, the Greek mothers from Athens demonstrated more smiling than the German mothers during facial exchange, thus transmitting more warmth. A first inspection of the Italian mothers from Verona and Mantua reveals that the Italian mothers show more body contact in these intercational situations than the German mothers thus also displaying more wamrth although in a proximal channel. These comparisons serve as a beginning of a planned initiative for the study socialization strategies in Europe which will be presented at the conference

Cognitive development of 12 month old Greek infants conceived after ICSI and the effects of the method on their parents

BACKGROUND: ICSI is widely used as a method of assisted reproduction in Greece. Research shows that children conceived after the application of ICSI develop normally. However, Bowen et al. (1998) reported that children conceived after ICSI had lower scores in the Mental Development Index (MDI) of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development compared with infants conceived naturally or by standard IVF treatment. This finding raised concerns about the effects of ICSI on infants’ cognitive development. The aim of the present study was twofold. First to compare the cognitive development of Greek infants conceived after ICSI treatment to a control group of infants conceived after IVF treatment and to a further control group conceived naturally (NC). Second, to investigate the psychological effects of ICSI compared to IVF on Greek parents. METHODS: The Bayley Scales of Infant Development were employed to assess cognitive development of infants. A 37 item semi-structured interview was devised to obtain demographic information and to assess and compare the psychological effects of ICSI and IVF on parents. RESULTS: The mental development of infants in all three groups was within the normal range (ICSI 101.4, IVF 95.7, NC 98.9). The differences between the three groups were not statistically significant. The duration of pregnancy and the birthweight differed in the three groups. Furthermore, mothers in the IVF and the ICSI groups experienced anxiety during pregnancy. IVF mothers differed in the mode of delivery and a smaller number of these mothers breastfed their infants. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that Greek infants, born after the application of ICSI, have mental and motor scores within the normal range. With regard to the psychological effects, it appears that mothers in the ICSI and IVF groups experience greater anxiety during their pregnancies than those in the NC group

Early experiences and attachment relationships of Greek infants raised in residential group care

FSW - Gezinsopvoeding - Ou

Cultural models, socialization goals, and parenting ethnotheories: A multicultural analysis

This study conceptualizes a cultural model of parenting. It is argued that cultural models are expressed in the degree of familism, which informs socialization goals that are embodied in parenting ethnotheories. Three cultural models were differentiated a priori: independent, interdependent, and autonomous-related. Samples were recruited that were expected to represent these cultural models: German, Euro-American, and Greek middle-class women representing the independent cultural model; Cameroonian Nso and Gujarati farming women representing the interdependent cultural model; and urban Indian, urban Chinese, urban Mexican, and urban Costa Rican women representing the autonomous-related model. These a priori classifications were confirmed with data that addressed different levels of the cultural models of parenting. The authors further confirmed that socialization goals mediate between broader sociocultural orientations (familism) and parenting ethnotheories concerning beliefs about good parenting. The data reveal that the model of autonomous relatedness needs further theoretical and empirical refinement. Problems with empirical studies comparing participants with very different lifestyles are discussed. © 2006 Sage Publications