: It creates a psychological distance between women and healthcare providers, often leading to lower satisfaction and a reluctance to seek facility-based care in the future.
The face is a primary site for expressing emotion, establishing attachment, and receiving care. From infancy, a child looks to a mother’s face for safety cues. When that same face becomes a source of pain, the psychological rupture is profound. Abusers often target the face for several reasons: maternal maltreatment facialabuse
: These mothers may create coercive memory-sharing environments, making children with cognitive delays or insecure attachments especially vulnerable to misinformation. APA PsycNET Physical Abuse Indicators : It creates a psychological distance between women
Key note: When the abuser is the mother – traditionally seen as a nurturer – the betrayal trauma is often more severe than abuse by a non-caretaker. When that same face becomes a source of