Maternal bond

In separation anxiety disorder a child becomes fearful and nervous when away from a loved one, usually a parent or other caregiver.

[1] The maternal bond between a woman and her biological child usually begins to develop during pregnancy.

By the seventh month of pregnancy, two-thirds of women report a strong maternal bond with their unborn child.

However, in the context of maternal depression, trauma or disturbed bonding in her own early life, some mothers have significant difficulty in tolerating the exploration and-or the infant's anxiety.

[10] This separation anxiety increases when infants and toddlers feel threatened or socially reference their mothers for reassurance.

The research claimed out that mothers, for example, with histories of violence exposure and post-traumatic stress show less activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area that helps to temper and contextualize fear responses, and thus are likely unable to extinguish their fear response upon watching a videotaped mother-toddler separation scene in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

Separation anxiety can cause children to be unable to be open to new experiences such as attending school regularly.

[12] Attachment happens after childbirth and does not form and is likely more fluid as you go further in later in life, this anxiety can reoccur if mothers have to leave their family unit to work.