This book is about being a mother - a mother with a baby inside her and then outside her. It is about fears, fantasies and expectations. Centring on almost weekly conversations with one woman, 'Barbara', and her feelings over the months of pregnancy, the book conveys the continuity in the inner world of a woman during the experience of carrying, bringing into existence, nurturing and weaning a baby. The reader is thus able to share the suspense inherent in every pregnancy and in every woman's mind as she approaches labour and her first meeting with her baby.