Becoming Parents

This book studies the transition to parenthood and its effects on individual well-being and couple relationships.

This book presents a landmark study of the transition to parenthood and its effects on individual well-being and couple relationships. It tracks the experiences of couples becoming parents for the first time, from the second trimester of pregnancy to six months post-birth.This book examines the transition from the perspective of adult attachment theory. It reviews previous studies of the transition to parenthood and of adult attachments, and presents the results of a comprehensive new study of parenthood. In this study, the researchers followed the experiences of approximately 100 couples who were becoming parents for the first time, together with a comparison sample of couples who were not planning to have a child at this stage. Couples were assessed on four occasions: during the second trimester of pregnancy, and 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post-birth. The book addresses such key issues as the division of domestic labor, the changing nature of couples' marital relationships, changes in new parents' attachment networks, postnatal depression, and factors predicting the ease of the transition.