Provided are summaries of conference presentations discussing aspects of birth, parent/child interaction, and attachment behavior. Material in part I explores perspectives on pregnancy and the perinatal period. Included are discussions of birth in nonindustrial societies, progress in the study of maternal behavior in animals, the physiological effects of a supportive companion during labor and the milieu and obstetrical positions during labor. In part II, summaries concern infants' and mothers' contributions to attachment. Topics discussed are early caregiving and later patterns of attachment, the transmission of affect between mothers and infants, studies of parent/infant bonding, maternal stress following the birth of a second child, the father's role in family development, and the father/child relationship. Part III focuses on the development of relationships in high-risk situations. Specific attention is given to the uses of behavioral assessment of premature infants in the context of intervention, findings of an anthropological study of a special care nursery, the impact of medical complications on parental behavior in the premature nursery, family-oriented intervention with failure-to-thrive infants, support for hospital caregivers, and staff burnout in the neonatal intensive care unit. Applications of recent research findings to clinical care are discussed in part IV. (RH)