Premature Birth

[UmbrellaBoy]

In another thread of mine about something more unrelated, it was brought up that being a preemie and having to live the first couple months of life in an incubator rather than being held all the time was possibly correlated with developing the sort of attachment/identity-formation issues that underlie and explain the various symptoms of BPD. My ex and several other peoples, it turns out, were all born prematurely.

Does anyone else have experiences that would back this up, or know of resources that make similar links?

[charred]

You might want to Google attachment theory and  John Bowlby, and pick up a copy of "Becoming Attached"... very good reading.

It is a whole field of study, lots of information.

[recoil]

My seven year old daughter was a micro-preemie (1 pound).  She doesn't like sleeping in her bedroom by herself, but she does.  We lost her Mom a few years ago to colon cancer.  My daughter has every right to have some separation anxiety.

However:

- She has a sense of self.

- She is able to say she's sorry.  She owns her mistakes.

- She is able to go to friend's homes and spend the night without any issues.

- She doesn't "change" based on who is around her (well, she does get more spoiled around her Grandparents).

- She is not over-sensitive.

- She doesn't "bend reality".

- She doesn't blame others for things she does.

Has she been impacted because of these events?  Sure.  Will she be diagnosed with BPD in the future?  I highly doubt it.