Teresa Strzembosz as an example of practical implementation of John Bowlby's theory in Poland

Abstrakt

Care for unborn children and helping lone mothers in difficult circumstances became one of the initiatives which were undertaken by Teresa Strzebosz as part of her life mission to help others. Her involvement and cooperation with cardinal Stefan Wyszynski as well as father Jan Ziaja brought about creation of a care home for lone mothers in Chyliczki in 1958. Her innovative and well researched approach during this project, which was presented to the Ministry of Health, helped to engage others to become involved in growing this initiative further. Her priority was to empower mothers and help them to become mature, responsible and independent caregivers. She emphasised the importance of the bond between a mother and a child and aimed at enabling the two to stay together. This approach taken by Teresa was a practical application of the bond theory proposed by John Bowlbe.  Her initiative to focus on lone mothers and actions undertaken to support them resulted in specific achievements. There are now 31 lone mothers' care homes, 6902 mother have been helped, 7383 children were taken care of the great majority of whom were able to be born in a safe manner.