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Help and support for new parents. Becoming a parent can feel overwhelming at times. Remember, your midwife and health visitor are there to help, guide and support you during the first few weeks and months. Here are a few other sources of advice and support that may be useful.
Navigating through the more challenging parts of parenting will be much easier if you have made preparations for the coming event. Talking through how things might change in your relationship and renegotiating these changes will be pivotal to how you deal with these issues when the time comes.
- Your Brain Tries to Prepare You Emotionally
- Your Attention For Baby’S Needs Sharpens
- Feeling and Thinking Work Hand in Hand For Caregiving
- Stress Diminishes—But So Does Memory
- Your Life Will Likely Become More Meaningful
- You’Ll Face Intense Physical and Psychological Challenges
- Your Bond with Your Co-Parent Will Be Tested
- Your Social and Family Ties Will Be Tested
- Your Internal Compass Will Be Challenged
- Connection and Support Become More Important
In 2014, Ruth Feldman, a researcher in Israel and at the Yale School of Medicine, conducted an experimentwith her colleagues. They went into the homes of 89 new parents and collected samples of oxytocin (the bonding hormone), and they recorded videos of parents interacting with their newborns. Later, the researchers put the parents in a functional ...
The second region that becomes more active is the “mentalizing network” that involves the higher cortex, or the more thinking regions of the brain. This area, along with the additional superhighways that connect the two emotion and mentalizing systems, focuses attention and grounds a parent in the present moment. (Who couldn’t stare at a new baby f...
Together, the emotion-processing and mentalizing networks are also associated with multitasking and better emotion regulation. In other words, parents’ brains are remodeled to protect, attune with, and plan for, their infants. Mothers aren’t the only ones whose brains are remodeled. The brains of fathers, too, light up in ways that nonparents’ brai...
Other researchhas found that hormonal changes in women late in pregnancy dampen their physical and psychological stress response as if to make more space to tune in to their babies’ needs. This is likely responsible for that special peacefulness many women experience in late pregnancy, as if the body is preparing for the important job to come. Howe...
More on ParentingTake a tour of the postpartum brain. Explore whether parenting really does bring unhappiness. Watch Greater Good parenting videos. What kind of connection do you want to have with...
“Every mom I knew was surprised by the impact of becoming a parent and wished she knew more about coping with it,” writes Jan Hanson in Mother Nurture: A Mother’s Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships. Hanson is a nutritionist who co-authored the book with her husband, the neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, as well as OB/GYN Ricki P...
Having a new child introduces new challenges to the parents as a couple. Conflicts typically increase in a relationship after the birth of a child, in part due to the “roommate hassles” of who will do what in the household, as well as disagreements about parenting styles. Sometimes the sense of intimacy, closeness, and sexuality in a relationship c...
New parents also undergo a rearrangement of their social life, including how they interact with extended family and friends. Some friendship networks get reconfigured (not all childless people want to hang out with new parents). Kelly noticed that other people changed in their relationship to her as she became a parent. The new demands on her time ...
Everyone has advice for the new parent, from conflicting noise in the media down to people in our most intimate circles. This is not new—parenting advice has always swung wildly over the centuries, subject to demands of the times. Kelly found that people offered unsolicited opinions, especially on sleep and clothing: “At times it felt that anyone w...
Kathleen Kendall-Tackett writesthat in many non-industrialized countries, the postpartum period is a special time of “mothering the mother.” New mothers are considered especially vulnerable so their activities are limited, they’re relieved of normal work, and they stay relatively secluded with their babies while other relatives take care of them. A...
As a new parent, you're bound to have questions on everything from getting started with breastfeeding to washing and bathing your baby and changing their nappy. Here's a quick guide to everything you need to know about caring for your new baby during those exhausting but wonderful early weeks.
The adjustment to being a parent of a newborn can take time, with the need for patience, support and tips from those who have been there before.
Feb 9, 2015 · Becoming a first-time parent can have a dramatic impact on many people, both in terms of the stress they experience and the impact that it has on marital satisfaction and emotional well-being.
Aug 8, 2022 · What new brain research is starting to suggest is that a woman's brain also undergoes a series of changes with pregnancy that might help prepare her for parenthood. Studies have shown that...
