Mothers

'Perhaps parenting is about accepting the mayhem'
Dr Emma Svanberg, author of 'Parenting for Humans', questions whether parenting quick fixes cause more harm than good; plus a review from Caroline Boyd.

#girlhood – teens take mental health into their own hands
Dr Beth Mosley MBE on how today's young people are finding ways to express and discuss the challenges they face.

'We need a rethink, to support young families'
Psychologist Mary Barker with a personal reflection on the death of her adopted daughter Ruby by suicide.

'Sometimes I give too much to one, and then the other one suffers'
Emily Hards discusses her experience of balancing motherhood with being an early career researcher in academia.

'In vulnerable times we tend to remember the words said to us'
Julia Bueno takes an award-winning exploration of the psychological, emotional, medical, and cultural aspects of miscarriage and pregnancy loss in her book The Brink of Being.

More gardener than goddess
Caroline Boyd, in her book Mindful New Mum, suggests that viewing new motherhood through the lens of 'matrescence' can help support new mums.

A silenced part of mothering
A mother is in a playground and feels a fleeting feeling of hate for her child. This emotion upsets her. But what she doesn't know is it's perfectly normal... Dr Margo Lowy explores.

'Are you okay?'
A clinical psychologist's account of having a daughter with depression, from Annie Hickox

Why we need to make birth better
Emma Svanberg with a model of birth trauma

How does birth trauma affect women?
Listening to Women After Childbirth, by Alison Brodrick & Emma Williamson, reviewed by Dr Kate Redman

The mother you need
Elisabeth de Mariaffi with an essay from the collection Whatever Gets You Through: Twelve Survivors on Life after Sexual Assault

'Can I sympathise with mothers who have hurt their children?'
Lauren Mountain never imagined this would be one of the first groups she worked with as an assistant psychologist… 

'The psychological will always be there… it's like my skeleton'
Poet Hussain Manawer on mental health and losing his mum

From mothers to matriarchs
Sergio A. Silverio with a personal take on modern constructions of ancient family values

Kinship and loss
Damien W. Riggs and Elizabeth Peel on their book Critical Kinship Studies, plus an extract on experiences of pregnancy loss

Questioning 'intensive attachment'
Val Gillies, Rosalind Edwards and Nicola Horsley with an extract from their book Challenging the politics of early intervention

Overrated: The predictive power of attachment
Elizabeth Meins on a concept she feels is overrated 

The Babadook and maternal depression
Pamela Jacobsen considers a metaphor in a horror film

'Honey, I shrunk the kids'
Jon Sutton and Aidan Horner speak to the children of psychologists, and the psychologists themselves, about their parenting

Surrogacy families
An extract from Susan Golombok's book Modern Families: Parents and Children in New Family Forms

New frontiers of family
Naomi Moller and Victoria Clarke explore embryo donation and voluntary childlessness

The ascension of parent-offspring ties
Karen Fingerman looks at the changing bonds between parents and their grown-up children changing, and the impact they have

'As with fairy tales, you used to ask me to tell you the famous studies over and over'
Psychology graduate Melanthe Grand interviews her mother, Chartered Psychologist and novelist Voula Grand

Eldercare: The new frontier of work-family balance
Lisa Calvano on the psychological impact of caring for spouses and parents

Interview with Francesca Happé
Francesca Happé talks about her work, plus being a scientist and mum

Parenting next door to the bogeyman
Suzanne Dash on protecting children in disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Responding to 'parent abuse'
Amanda Holt asks whether there is a role for psychology

The maternal brain
Christian Jarrett on the widely held belief that pregnancy affects cognitive function

A psychological plan for perinatal care
Pauline Slade and Michelle Cree offer some practical recommendations

Worry about worrying
Melanie Gunning examines maternal anxiety in pregnancy

Find plenty of studies summarised in our Research Digest including:

Parenting Instagram accounts can make mothers feel supported, but also less competent – Emily Reynolds
Parents play different roles in health as adults: Mothers support us, while fathers are often 'cautionary tales' – Emily Reynolds
Researchers asked these British mothers which personality traits they would most wish for their babies – extraversion came out on top – Christian Jarrett
Nature vs Nurture: Mothers with multiple children have an intuitive grasp of behavioural genetics – Christian Jarrett
How a mother's odour helps her baby develop a sensitivity to faces – Emma Young
Neuro Harlow: The effect of a mother's touch on her child's developing brain – Christian Jarrett
Shame, stigma and mother-blaming following miscarriage – Petra Boynton