Mother Brain by Chelsea Conaboy

Health and science journalist Chelsea Conaboyexplodes 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 (...)

Chelsea Conaboy is a journalist specializing in personal and public health.
She was part of the Boston Globe 's Pulitzer prize-winning team for coverage
of the Boston Marathon bombing and more recently has worked as a
magazine writer with bylines at Mother Jones, Politico, The Week, the Boston
Globe Magazine, and others. She lives in Maine with her husband, their two
young sons, and her own changing maternal brain.

Henry Holt & Co
On Sale: Sep 19/23
5.38 x 8.25 • 368 pages
9781250871428 • $26.99 • pb
Medical / Neuroscience