Becoming a Parent
Contemporary Contexts and Challenges during the Transition to Parenthood

Provides an evidence-based overview of the challenges of becoming a parent in a broad range of contemporary contexts.

Catherine A. McMahon (Author)

9781108836050, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 December 2022

300 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.62 kg

'Becoming a Parent is a twenty-first century book that captures the incredible variability as well as the predictable universalities of this important life transition. Carefully edited interviews with women and men from highly diverse backgrounds make the research-based information come alive. A must-read for students, educators, and policy makers.' Marsha Weinraub, Temple University, USA

The contexts for becoming a parent are ever-changing, bringing new opportunities and new challenges. Becoming a Parent examines the transition to parenthood from diverse perspectives – it is about becoming, rather than being a parent. Drawing on a large body of theory and research, the book explores universal psychological journeys as well as the specific challenges faced by those whose pathways to parenthood are non-traditional or medically complicated. It also examines the unprecedented reproductive choices in contemporary society and provides a comprehensive overview of the personal and social impact of reproductive technologies. Pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenthood (the so-called 'fourth trimester') are discussed in detail and illustrated with case anecdotes and personal stories of people with 'high-risk' pregnancies, fathers as well as mothers, adoptive parents, and LGBTQ as well as heterosexual adults. It concludes with social and policy initiatives that can better support positive adaptation during this crucial life transition.

Preface
1. Contemplating parenthood: why children?
2. Reproductive technologies
3. Becoming a mother
4. Becoming a father
5. High stakes pregnancies: the impact of infertility, risk, and loss
6. Alternative pathways: becoming a parent through reproductive donation, or adoption
7. Childbirth
8. The 4th trimester
9. The way forward: clinical, social, and policy initiatives to support new parents.

Subject Areas: Clinical psychology [MMJ], Gynaecology & obstetrics [MJT], Health psychology [MBNH9], Family psychology [JMF], Child & developmental psychology [JMC]