Motherhood - Jane Price

This volume is part of a series of investigative books written by women about all aspects of the human body and health. Each book takes into account women's lives in different countries and cultures, and challenges conventional assumptions about health issues which affect everyone.;Few women are prepared for the confusing and often violent emotions that come with motherhood. In this new approach to the psychology of motherhood, the author draws on women's accounts of their feelings at every stage of pregnancy and early motherhood, aiming to help promote a better understanding of the intense emotions which she believes cannot be explained away as post-natal depression.;New mothers can feel they are losing their sanity as they deal with emotions such as anger, guilt, resentment, jealousy, fear that they are not "bonding" properly and an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. Jane Price shows how our childhood image of what a mother should be influences every decision we make: when to have a child in the first place, whether to breastfeed, when, if at all, to return to work. She shows why women struggle to be at least as good or a great deal better than their own mothers and why they think they fail. Weighing the expectations of parents, partners and friends against our own, the author aims to help mothers see themselves as "good enough" rather than perfect mothers and to have a growing relationship with their children, husband and parents.;Dr Jane Price is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who specializes in the psychology of women. She has three children of her own.