| Motherhood |
| Parenthood |
| Neurosciences |
| Maternity |
| Neural sciences |
| Neurological sciences |
| Neuroscience |
Available:
Library | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Attleboro Public Library | 306.8743 CON 2022 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Bridgewater Public Library | 306.874 CONABOY 2022 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fall River Main | 306.874 C743 | Stacks | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library | 306.8743 CONABOY | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mansfield Public Library | 306.874 CONA | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mattapoisett Free Public Library | 306.8743 CON 2022 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Norton Public Library | 306.8743 CON 2022 | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Seekonk Public Library | 306.874 CONABOY | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Swansea Public Library | 306.87 CON | NONFICTION | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Health and science journalist Chelsea Conaboy explodes the concept of "maternal instinct" and tells a new story about what it means to become a parent.
Conaboy expected things to change with the birth of her child. What she didn't expect was how different she would feel. But she would soon discover what was behind this: her changing brain. Though Conaboy was prepared for the endless dirty diapers, the sleepless nights, and the joy of holding her newborn, she did not anticipate this shift in self, as deep as it was disorienting. Mother Brain is a groundbreaking exploration of the parental brain that untangles insidious myths from complicated realities.
New parents undergo major structural and functional brain changes, driven by hormones and the deluge of stimuli a baby provides. These neurobiological changes help all parents--birthing or otherwise--adapt in those intense first days and prepare for a long period of learning how to meet their child's needs. Pregnancy produces such significant changes in brain anatomy that researchers can easily sort those who have had one from those who haven't. And all highly involved parents, no matter their path to parenthood, develop similar caregiving circuitry. Yet this emerging science, which provides key insights into the wide-ranging experience of parenthood, from its larger role in shaping human nature to the intensity of our individual emotions, is mostly absent from the public conversation about parenthood.
The story that exists in the science today is far more meaningful than the idea that mothers spring into being by instinct. Weaving the latest neuroscience and social psychology together with new reporting, Conaboy reveals unexpected upsides, generations of scientific neglect, and a powerful new narrative of parenthood.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Conaboy debuts with an illuminating examination of the changes the brain goes through during parenthood. Digging into neurological and cognitive research on becoming a parent, Conaboy contends that caregiving isn't as instinctual as often assumed. She debunks the "maternal instinct," citing research that found parents who don't carry their children undergo similar neural changes to those who do, regardless of gender, which suggests that " 'maternal behavior' is... a basic human characteristic." These changes take time to develop, Conaboy writes, reporting on research that found "circuitry involved in social cognition" strengthens in new parents as they learn to decipher their child's nonverbal cues. She looks at the evolutionary benefits of the universal human capacity to bond with and care for a child regardless of one's biological relationship with them, noting that some scientists believe this ability might have been the "fundamental characteristic that set humans apart." As for the policy implications of her research, she asserts the need for universal paid family leave based on studies that found it lowers rates of postpartum depression, preterm births, and infant mortality. Conaboy's detailed research and eye-opening myth-busting add up to a cogent argument that "all human adults... are fundamentally changed by the act of parenting." Surprising and enlightening, this should be required reading for all caregivers. (Sept.)
Kirkus Review
How parenting affects body and mind. Conaboy, a journalist specializing in health issues, makes an engaging book debut with an informative, well-researched look at the physical and psychological changes caused by engaging in "the life-supporting practice of mothering." Drawing on interviews with parents, scientists, and medical practitioners; examining abundant research; and reflecting on her own experiences as the mother of two sons, the author depicts motherhood as "a distinct developmental stage with long-lasting effects, in which each of the body's systems thought to regulate social behavior, emotion, and immune responses" are dramatically affected. Noting the dearth of scientific studies about parents who are not "straight, cisgender people who share DNA with their child," Conaboy focuses largely on birth mothers while also reporting on the experiences of fathers and other relatives involved in caregiving. In a historical and cultural overview of assumptions about motherhood, she underscores the social, political, and religious forces that gave rise to "the fallacy of the maternal instinct," which has left some women feeling inadequate and guilty. She roundly debunks this notion, taken as scientific fact by lawmakers who want to limit reproductive rights and maternity benefits by arguing that motherhood is women's destiny and that mothers are innately constituted as caregivers. Conaboy shares research in neurobiology and endocrinology that has revealed complex ways that pregnancy, birth, and caregiving reorganize the brain, "altering the neural feedback loops that dictate how we react to the world around us, how we read and respond to other people, and how we regulate our own emotions." These changes occur, in varying degrees, in both men and women. The author deftly translates scientific studies--by neurobiologists, anthropologists, primatologists, psychologists, and endocrinologists, among others--into accessible prose that speaks to needs and anxieties that many parents share. Adapting to motherhood, she asserts, is "a bodily challenge and a logistical challenge" that lasts a lifetime. Useful, well-informed encouragement for new and prospective parents. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In her first book, Conaboy, a journalist specializing in personal and public health, explores what neuroscience shows about the way a parent's brain is affected by giving birth. Neurobiologists recognize and are documenting the many ways in which giving birth reorganizes the brain, actually changing neural feedback loops that affect how a person responds to social cues and the world around them and how they regulate emotions; scientists now consider this crucial postpartum time a major developmental stage. Conaboy (who was part of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning team covering the Boston Marathon bombing) deploys her journalistic skill to bring this complex subject to a readable level. She also attempts to apply a broader lens to the topic of birth and "motherhood," most of the research about which is overly focused on white cisgender heterosexual women. Conaboy points out other data that shows that transgender men and nonbinary parents who give birth also experience a change in their brains during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Conaboy's book isn't a parenting manual but rather a work of pop science jam-packed with neurobiological research; it's both fascinating and surprisingly readable. VERDICT Highly recommended.
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. xi |
| Chapter 1 At the Flip of a Switch | p. 1 |
| Chapter 2 The Making of a Mothers Instinct | p. 24 |
| Chapter 3 Attention, Please | p. 50 |
| Chapter 4 Our Babies, Our Selves | p. 83 |
| Chapter 5 The Ancient Family Tree | p. 115 |
| Chapter 6 Inclined to Care | p. 143 |
| Chapter 7 Start Where You Are | p. 172 |
| Chapter 8 The One in the Mirror | p. 213 |
| Chapter 9 Between Us | p. 235 |
| Notes | p. 263 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 334 |
| Index | p. 337 |