The birth of identity in cases of sexual ambiguity

Three children whose sexual identity seas unclear were followed for three years in the framework of clinical research concerning the consequences of prenatal diagnosis on the child's personalization process. In the case of such malformations, the definitive designation of gender cannot be made until investigations lasting several weeks have been performed. It is during this interval between birth and the moment when gender is established that we base our reflection. The absence of sexual identity prevents recognition of the newborn baby. The child whose sex is uncertain troubles the parents' Oedipal organization and threatens the foundations of their identity. The conviction that their newborn child belongs to one sex or the other, in spite of an anatomical ambiguity which momentarily makes identification impossible, is the first defense mobilized by parents confronted with this traumatism. More than a defensive construct, this conviction will help to organize the child's identity.