Perspectives on Early Parenthood and Infancy

Höfundar: Perez, , Alejandra (Útgáfa: 1)
Perspectives on Early Parenthood and Infancy

Kaup valmöguleikar

Perspectives on Early Parenthood and Infancy offers a comprehensive exploration of these vital life stages through the lenses of psychoanalysis, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and diverse socio-cultural contexts. Chronologically structured, this edited collection traces key stages of development through a rich collection of contributions from clinicians, researchers, and academics across a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines.

The contributors look in turn at the milestones of conception and pregnancy to birth and the transition to parenthood, paying close attention to infancy and the early parent-infant relationship. The chapters explore pivotal themes, including the rapidly evolving landscape of assisted conception; the physical changes and psychological vulnerability experienced during pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood; parents’ unconscious defence mechanisms; experiences of weaning, feeding, and sleeping; the perspectives of marginalised parents; and the vital role of cultural awareness in clinical practice.

These topics are brought to life through clinical vignettes and current research findings woven throughout the book. Presenting complex and meaningful information in an accessible way, each section of the book features integrative discussion chapters written by the editors, which deepen theoretical understanding, while providing practical tools for clinical application and academic research, making this volume a valuable resource for both practitioners and researchers, as well as parents.

Nánar um bókina

Útgefandi
Taylor & Francis
ISBN
9781040657447
Print ISBN
9781032870175
Format
ePub
Útgáfa
1
Höfundar
Perez, , Alejandra
Tungumál
English
Útgefið
2025-12-10
Prent takmörkun á líftíma
100
Prent takmörkun
2
Afritunar takmörkun
2

Kaflar

  • Cover
  • Endorsements
  • Half-Title Page
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Contributors
  • Foreword
  • Acknowledgements
  • Main introduction
  • The importance of infancy and early parenthood for later development
  • The origins of this book
  • Creating a dialogue: the challenges
  • Psychoanalytic perspectives
  • Developmental psychology perspectives
  • Neuroscience perspectives
  • Socio-cultural perspectives
  • How we selected and invited guest authors
  • Overview of the book
  • Reading the book by perspective
  • Reading the book thematically
  • Considerations
  • Inclusive language
  • Clinical material and confidentiality
  • References
  • Part I Conception
  • Chapter 1 Psychoanalytic perspectives on conception
  • On being able to conceive
  • The space to allow creation
  • Clinical vignette: A planned pregnancy that feels ‘too soon’ and ‘unexpected’
  • Conflicts about creation: Tension, loss, and feeling excluded
  • Clinical vignette: Fear of being excluded
  • Reawakening of the past
  • Clinical vignette: Giving up to avoid the pain of failure
  • References
  • Chapter 2 Fertility and reproductive health education for family building
  • Global perspective
  • Family planning: A historical perspective
  • Have we left family out of family planning?
  • The importance of fertility and reproductive health education
  • Sources of fertility and reproductive health information
  • Considering broader population groups
  • Engaging men
  • Educating healthcare professionals
  • Planting the seed young
  • Language matters
  • References
  • Chapter 3 Psychoanalytic perspectives on assisted donor conception
  • Assisted conception
  • The psychoanalytic perspective on early parenthood and infancy
  • What does it mean to conceive?
  • Conceiving a family using donated gametes
  • How does the fact of the donor shape a sense of family?
  • Linda and Susie
  • The psychoanalytic perspective on early parenthood and infancy of donor-assisted conception
  • Family Marionn
  • References
  • Chapter 4 Psychosocial aspects of donor conception and seeking identity of donors
  • Introduction
  • Parenthood following donor conception
  • The adult donor conceived person
  • Conclusions
  • References
  • Chapter 5 The social and psychological aspects of forming a family through surrogacy
  • References
  • Chapter 6 Conception: A discussion
  • The rapidly changing landscape of conception
  • The increasing age of conception
  • Rules and regulations for assisted reproduction
  • The space and time needed to conceive and build a family
  • Advantages and challenges of having extensive information and choices about conception
  • Socio-cultural perspectives on conception
  • Need for knowledge
  • Beyond a physical and biological process
  • Revisiting the concept of being a parent and forming a family
  • References
  • Part II Pregnancy and the prenatal stage
  • Chapter 7 Physical and psychological changes: A psychoanalytic perspective
  • Physical changes during pregnancy
  • The inter-connection between body and mind in psychoanalysis
  • The pregnant body’s demands on the mind
  • Symbiosis and separation
  • Imagining baby
  • Coping with pregnancy: Projection, identification, and an in-between state
  • Clinical vignette: A twisted, stuck pain
  • References
  • Chapter 8 Neurobiological perspectives on pregnancy
  • Pioneering research on maternal brain changes
  • Hormones as potential contributing factors
  • Which brain regions are modified?
  • The significance of Theory of Mind in caregiving
  • The role of the Default Mode Network in identity shifts
  • Maternal motivation and the mesolimbic reward circuit
  • Grey matter volume reduction: a signature of a neural refinement
  • Mental health vulnerabilities during pregnancy and postpartum
  • Insights from MRI scanning during pregnancy
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 9 The bodily self during pregnancy
  • Body image
  • Body ownership, agency, and control
  • Bodily awareness
  • Neural changes
  • Interplay of different aspects of bodily self
  • References
  • Chapter 10 Qualitative study of a transgender father in his third trimester
  • Qualitative study
  • Formation of a new role and identity
  • Surroundings of the pregnancy
  • Growth of the baby and body
  • Discussion
  • Note
  • References
  • Chapter 11 Pregnancy and the prenatal stage: A discussion
  • Medical interventions and social contact: The experience of intrusion on the pregnant body
  • Reconciling the changing pregnant body with one’s internal world
  • The beginning of a new developmental stage and a changing identity
  • The physical and mental adjustments involved in preparing for the baby
  • Pregnancy as a period of mental health vulnerability
  • References
  • Part III Birth
  • Chapter 12 Hopes, fears, and change during birth
  • Birth: Separation and continuity of being
  • Birth stories: Expectations, hopes, and fears
  • Change: The arrival of a third
  • Clinical vignette: Meeting baby
  • References
  • Chapter 13 Traumatic births
  • Introduction
  • Working with pre- and postnatal couples in the community
  • Aspects of trauma in birth
  • Truth as antidote to trauma
  • References
  • Chapter 14 Birthing consciousness: Psycho-neurobiology of childbirth
  • Introduction: The science of birth
  • A tentative taxonomy of births
  • What can we say about the psycho-neurobiology of physiological birth?
  • The phenomenon of birthing consciousness
  • A hypothesis concerning the neurobiological mechanism of birthing consciousness: Transient hypofrontality
  • The mental experience during birthing consciousness: Flow
  • What can we say about the psycho-neurobiology of medicalised birth?
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 15 The bodily self during birth
  • Medicalisation and obstetric violence
  • Historical narratives of birth
  • Body trust and maternal agency
  • The birthing brain
  • Honouring the bodily self in birth
  • References
  • Chapter 16 The socio-cultural context of birth
  • The ‘triple burden’ faced by perinatal women
  • Cultural, structural, and direct violence faced by women
  • The time-bind of motherhood
  • Summary: Intersectional factors and the socio-cultural context of birth
  • References
  • Chapter 17 Birth: A discussion
  • Different ways of thinking about birth
  • Medical classifications
  • Subjective classifications
  • Social and contextual classifications
  • External and internal factors influencing the birthing experience
  • Mental states during birth
  • Traumatic births
  • Socio-cultural aspects of childbirth
  • The importance of accessible, high-quality care
  • Increases in medicalised childbirth
  • Pressures of motherhood
  • References
  • Part IV Transition to parenthood
  • Chapter 18 Psychological changes and challenges in the transition to parenthood
  • A mother-infant dyad
  • Changes and challenges
  • Parenthood post Freud
  • Parenthood today
  • References
  • Chapter 19 Psychoanalytic thinking and the parenting couple
  • The creative couple1
  • Case vignette
  • Case vignette
  • Couples as parents: Parents as couples
  • Case vignette
  • Threats to the secure boundary around the couple, threatening their role as parents
  • Note
  • References
  • Chapter 20 Making space for a third: A family case study
  • Meeting the family: A restricted contact
  • Maternal and paternal functions; mothers and fathers
  • ‘Ghosts in the nursery’ – an enmeshed mother and a rejected, absent father
  • ‘Giving voice’ to baby
  • Note
  • References
  • Chapter 21 Neurobiological changes in early parenthood
  • Structural brain changes during early parenthood
  • Functional brain changes during early parenthood
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 22 The bodily self after birth
  • Bonding through the body
  • Blurred body boundaries
  • Rebuilding the relationship with mother’s own body
  • Fostering an empowering postpartum journey
  • References
  • Chapter 23 Parenthood readiness education in Japan
  • The low birth rates in Japan. Why are young people not transitioning into parenthood?
  • Parenthood readiness education
  • Experience before and after taking part in a parenthood readiness programme
  • Ideas about children
  • Ideas about child raising
  • Thoughts on group discussion
  • Discussion
  • Ideas about children
  • Ideas about child raising
  • Group work as a way of helping child raising
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 24 Transition to parenthood: A discussion
  • Changes and challenges in the transition to parenthood
  • Parental functions and roles, gender, the body, and contemporary culture
  • Narcissism (self-love) vs object-love (baby-love), and a facilitating third
  • References
  • Part V Infancy
  • Chapter 25 Psychoanalytic and attachment perspectives on the infant’s inner world
  • The development of the inner world in psychoanalysis
  • Presence, absence, internalisation, and symbolisation
  • Unconscious phantasies
  • Internal working models of attachment
  • Measuring attachment behaviours and representations
  • Points of convergence and divergence between psychoanalysis and attachment theories
  • Clinical vignette: A wobbly inner world
  • References
  • Chapter 26 Biological basis of attachment1
  • Introduction
  • Evolutionary and neurobiological foundations of attachment
  • Attachment as an evolutionarily adaptive behaviour
  • Key brain structures in attachment
  • Neurochemical and hormonal regulation
  • Emerging approaches
  • The neurobiology of touch
  • Epigenetic mechanisms
  • Translational perspectives: Clinical and cultural considerations
  • Clinical applications of neurobiological findings
  • Cultural influences on attachment biology
  • Note
  • References
  • Chapter 27 The role of individual factors in infant development
  • Introduction
  • Biological beginnings
  • Genetics and heritability
  • Environmental effects on genetic development
  • Epigenetics
  • Individual temperament
  • Neural network origins
  • The environment’s influence on temperament and goodness-of-fit
  • Factors contributing to infant adaptability
  • Resilient physical development
  • Differential susceptibility
  • Risk versus protective factors
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 28 The development of self-awareness in infancy
  • Introduction
  • The development of bodily self-awareness in infancy
  • The development of conceptual self-awareness in infancy
  • Summary
  • References
  • Chapter 29 Faith identity and psychological therapies with Muslim families
  • Parenting in Islam
  • Faith and culture
  • Challenges for Muslim parents in the UK
  • Parenting infants
  • Examples of faith-sensitive work with parents (TRP)
  • Summary
  • Notes
  • References
  • Chapter 30 Infancy: A discussion
  • The complex interplay between the internal and the external
  • The interplay between innate predispositions and environmental influences
  • The infant’s creative role in forming their inner world in the context of the parental environment
  • Navigating socio-cultural views and practices
  • The importance of the body from infancy to parenthood
  • A developing sense of self
  • Symbiosis and separation
  • Connection and metabolisation
  • References
  • Part VI The early parent-infant relationship
  • Chapter 31 Holding, containment, and regulation of early experiences
  • The intensity of early, pre-verbal experiences
  • The parent’s permeability to their infant’s experience
  • Clinical vignette: Whose body?
  • Modulating and transforming the infant’s early experience
  • Clinical vignette: An escalating, violent nightmare
  • A containing parental function
  • Clinical vignette:1 A misunderstood, dysregulating infant’s approach
  • Note
  • References
  • Chapter 32 Internal experiences of separations: Weaning, feeding, and sleeping
  • Birth, the first separation
  • Sleeping, and not sleeping
  • Feeding
  • Weaning
  • Concluding comments
  • References
  • Chapter 33 The neurobiological basis of infant-parent attachment
  • Four neural networks
  • Stress-Fear-Pain Network
  • Emotion Regulation Network
  • Connection Network
  • Self-Other Network
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 34 Tuning in to baby: The importance of parental mentalising
  • What is mentalising?
  • Mentalising in the first year of life
  • Parent mentalising—four ways of examining parental mentalising during infancy
  • Why is parental mentalising so important?
  • Attachment security and maternal sensitivity
  • Emotional regulation and behaviour
  • Language, communication, and cognitive abilities
  • Child mentalising ability
  • Factors affecting parental mentalising
  • Summary
  • References
  • Chapter 35 Psychoanalytic parent-infant psychotherapy as preventative work
  • Setting up
  • Assessment and treatment
  • Discovering the voice of the pre-verbal baby
  • Discussion
  • References
  • Chapter 36 Parent-infant dynamics in an observant Jewish context
  • Introduction
  • Context
  • Modesty (Laws of Tzniut)
  • Perinatal mood disorders
  • Clinical vignette
  • The baby in mind
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Chapter 37 The early parent-infant relationship: A discussion
  • The infant’s developing capacities through the parent-infant relationship
  • The oscillating closeness and distance needed to understand baby
  • Getting it ‘wrong’ and getting to know parents and baby
  • Socio-cultural perspectives on parent-infant interactions
  • Cultural differences
  • Cultural awareness
  • Clashes between cultural expectations and individual experiences
  • The various forms of support needed from conception to early parenthood
  • Bringing it all together
  • References
  • Index