“Sometimes in the mornings, I would lose my patience, and later, I would cry at the table, reading about how maternal emotional control shapes a system of interneuronal connections in children to regulate their own…”
Journalist and mother Chelsea Conaboy was convinced that motherhood was joy plus fatigue from lack of sleep and a million tasks. But she did not expect the profound changes that occurred within her at the level of thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
“During this period, we as parents are developing just as actively as teenagers during puberty.”
For a long time, the hormonal surge associated with childbirth was seen as something to simply endure. It was believed that parents would return to their former selves afterward. But that’s not the case.
The restructuring of the parental brain is much more than just “rearranging furniture” to make space for another role in the chaos of life. Parenthood moves load-bearing walls.
Here’s what you can read about in the book:
- How the brain changes and how it continues to change throughout life (spoiler: it’s good, it even rejuvenates!)
- Where the joy of parenthood is hidden
- How to stop blaming oneself and accept conflicting feelings “Bad” mothers
- What changes with the birth of second and subsequent children
- How to get rid of unrealistic expectations
- Why worrying is normal
- How traumas, including miscarriages, affect mental health
- Myths about maternal behavior, or why caring for offspring is not dependent on gender
Chelsea Conaboy
Chelsea Conaboy is a health and science journalist. She was part of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning team for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. Her work has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, Mother Jones, Politico, The Week, the Boston Globe Magazine, WBUR, The Philadelphia Inquirer and others. She lives in Maine with her husband, their two children, and her own changing maternal brain.
