When bonding takes time...

I've just read a very moving article from The Guardian written by the mother of a baby born prematurely after she developed pre-eclampsia explaining how it took time for her to relax and learn to love her daughter.  The link is here.  It's worth reading, especially for anyone who had a premature baby or who ever felt any uncertainty about the way they "bonded" with their own newborn.  We have come to expect that mothers should experience an almost mystical link with their babies at the moment of birth, but the reality is often far from that, particularly after a difficult birth or when a baby is born very early. Perhaps it's time to appreciate quite how far our rose-tinted ideals about motherhood can sometimes be from real women's experiences.