Mother Brain

Starred review from May 1, 2022

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.

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July 15, 2022
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.

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Starred review from August 8, 2022
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.