From birth to the couch: readiness is all.

When there are obstacles in the way of being prepared for birth or psychological birth, whether in a perinatal situation or in the analysis of an adult, the analyst must create the conditions in which parents, baby and patient can realize their potentiality for developing. The analyst is bearer of hope in what can feel to be a hopeless world. We offer two clinical vignettes to show the importance of respect, timing and tact in the process of facilitating the freedom to move on towards a creative future. Both vignettes illustrate unconscious communication in action.