Georgia Conference on Child Abuse Prevention

Parents who experience significant stress, fear, or trauma during pregnancy, birth, or early infancy may come to perceive their child as unusually vulnerable or “fragile.” Although this perception often emerges from understandable protective instincts, it can gradually shape caregiving in ways that limit the child’s normal development, autonomy, learning, socialization, and tolerance of ordinary childhood experiences. In more severe cases, this vulnerability-based parenting pattern may contribute to excessive medicalization, healthcare overuse, or even medical harm.