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Pregnancy and early parenthood can generate a mixture of emotional experiences ranging from joy to bewilderment to frustration. Upon learning about a pregnancy, parents may find themselves fraught with feelings and questions related to their parenting ability, financial situation, career stability, and their own childhoods and relationships with their parents. As they are wading through this emotional sea, new parents may have a general idea of the importance of practicing healthy behavior while their child is in utero and beyond. However, the specifics of the criticality of a parent's role during this phase of fetal and human development may not be fully understood.
In this book, Gerhardt provides an elegant exploration of the topic of how loving parent-child relationships impact early brain development, which, in turn, shapes the child's future emotional and physical health.
The information in the book is organized into three parts. The first part evaluates the foundation for building a baby's brain. Discussion of in utero influences of maternal psychological stress, malnutrition, clinical depression, and toxic substance exposure are correlated with specific information about how such influences affect certain developing brain regions and how this may impact the child's future mental health. The key point conveyed is that parenting starts now. Thankfully, hope is not lost as she goes on to explore how human care after birth during early childhood plays a larger role in shaping the child's brain. Here, Gerhardt reviews the role of the parent to observe and regulate a baby's feelings by adequately meeting his/her needs. In short, the parental regulator's responsibility is to get the baby “back to feeling okay” (p. 40).