ABSTRACT:Thirty women pregnant for the first time were interviewed during the first trimester to determine their image of and feeling toward their fetuses. Most women grossly underestimated the size and development of the fetus as well as its activities, attributing “formless,”“unattractive” and animal‐like features to it. Only 9 of the 30 women thought the fetus to be a real person at this stage of pregnancy. These women predicted they would feel grief if the fetus were miscarried, were more anxious about possible abnormality, more willing to abstain from intercourse to protect the fetus, thought the fetus could affect the mother, and were less ambivalent or unhappy when the pregnancy was confirmed. These 9 women differed from the other 21 in being from larger families or having jobs, such as nursing, which involved nurturing skills. The implications of these feelings or lack of them toward the fetus in the first trimester is