The inception of a group psychotherapeutic intervention in infertile women – difficulties and obstacles through the constitution of a group setting in a maternity hospital

Laburpena

Several cases of infertility without the presence of a known medical cause and with a spontaneous remission have been studied from the psychological point of view. A look at infertility, in a psychodynamic way, suggests that it is the result of a defensive activation, aimed at promoting emotional protection, seen in pregnant women in high-risk obstetrics, in infertile couples waiting for infertility appointments and in pregnant women waiting for amniocentesis examination outcome. Thus, a spontaneous remission may be seen as a translation that the psychological impasse would have been overcome. This article intends to present a research project that has been held at the Maternity Hospital Dr. Alfredo da Costa (MAC), in Lisbon, and which participants are women followed in the MAC infertility consultation, unable to conceive or lead to good fruition a pregnancy after at least one year of regular sexual intercourse without resorting to contraceptive methods. In this article we intend to reflect the hindrances, difficulties and obstacles felt through the inception of a group psychotherapeutic setting in a Maternity Hospital. After all the bureaucratic issues have been solved out, the psychological resistance of the participants emerged, revealing to be a pattern.