The Motherhood Transition: Helping New Moms Understand and Benefit from the Journey to Motherhood

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION - From the acclaimed author of Embracing Motherhood ("A transformative and deeply insightful read"-Jane Austen) comes an essential, moving, and passionately written inquiry-both personal and scientific-into the mental, spiritual, and physical journey of becoming a mother. From pregnancy and childbirth to early motherhood, this profound process reveals deep insights about the way we live now.

In this groundbreaking, deeply personal investigation, Melinda J. Ford delves into the transformative concept of the "motherhood transition"-the comprehensive experience of becoming a mother.

Drawing from her own experiences of becoming a mother three times, Ford explores the latest research in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychoanalysis, existential therapy, sociology, economics, and ecology. She details the profound physical and emotional changes in the maternal mind, body, and spirit, demonstrating that these changes are far more significant, intense, and enduring than previously acknowledged.

Part memoir, part scientific and health reporting, part social critique, ecological philosophy, eco-feminism, and nature writing, Thriving Through the Motherhood Transition is a kind of whodunnit, unearthing with nuanced, searing, and honest observations why mothers during this critical transition often reach a breaking point. It also examines what the institution of intensive, isolated motherhood reveals about our prevailing social and cultural myths.

Thriving Through the Motherhood Transition is an important, heartfelt, and insightful exploration of motherhood. It invites readers to understand and embrace the profound changes that come with motherhood and to see these changes as an integral and enriching part of a mother's journey.