The perinatal period is a critical period for the brain development during which the environment influences its construction and maturation. In this project, we aim to assess the link between the mother's perinatal affective state and the infant's early attentional development. To this end, we have developed an emotional feedback inhibition task that allows us to test the performance of mother and child in parallel. We recruited 11 mother-infant dyads, which were seen at two measurement times: a first time during the third trimester of pregnancy and a second time when the baby is 6 month old, as well as 20 control subjects. The analyses revealed an effect of the type of emotion presented on the Inhibition of Return (IOR), and an effect of the mothers' level of postnatal depression on their IOR, particularly with sad faces. However, the mothers' emotional state did not appear to affect their infants’ IOR. Furthermore, there appears to be stability in the mothers' anxiety and depression levels between the pre- and postnatal periods, as well as stability in their IOR abilities. Finally, there appeared to be no difference between the anxiety and depression levels of mothers and controls.