A study of new mothers has confirmed something we already knew: mothering self-help books can do more harm than good. So are any actually worth reading?
Some bits of research are so welcome that they sound a bit made-up, but sincerely, this wasn’t: Amy Brown, a researcher into maternal and infant health at Swansea University, did a study of 350 new mothers and their use of baby manuals and mothering self-help books. She found a clear relationship between mental health and the number of books a mother had read: it was inverse. Those who had read the most baby manuals reported the most depressive symptoms.
Not only could I have predicted this, I can describe the mechanism for it. Baby books fall into three categories: What Your Baby Should Be Able To Do (urtext: the What To Expect series); How To Make Your Baby Do What You Want (key work: Gina Ford’s Contented Little Baby Book); and The Many Ways in Which You Might Screw Your Baby Up (foundation stone: Penelope Leach, or you could even go back to the father of attachment theory, John Bowlby). There are a handful worth reading; most will make you miserable.
Continue reading...
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.