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Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters

by Erica Komisar

Motherhood, caregiving, and the first three years

Regular price $23.28 USD
Regular price $38.81 USD Sale price $23.28 USD
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Hardcover New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    Featured in The Wall Street Journal

    The book is described as featured in The Wall Street Journal.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Motherhood, caregiving, and the first three years

Erica Komisar’s book makes the case for prioritizing a mother’s emotional and physical presence during a child’s first three years, drawing on her clinical work, psychoanalytic theory, and research on caregiving, attachment, and brain development. Alongside its argument about early connection, it addresses practical questions: building a bond with a newborn or toddler, managing transitions, choosing childcare, and navigating postpartum depression or boredom. The book also considers how parents can weigh work and caregiving arrangements against their family’s emotional needs. Its subject is both child development and the pressures facing mothers as they make those choices.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Expectant and new mothers considering work, leave, or caregiving arrangements
  • Parents seeking guidance on early attachment, childcare, and transitions
  • Readers interested in psychoanalytic and neurobiological perspectives on caregiving

Themes

Motherhood and caregivingEarly childhood developmentAttachment and emotional connectionChildcare and family choicesPostpartum emotional health

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A powerful look at the importance of a mother's presence in the first years of life

**Featured in The Wall Street Journal, and seen on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and CBS New York**

In this important and empowering book, veteran psychoanalyst Erica Komisar explains why a mother's emotional and physical presence in her child's life--especially during the first three years--gives the child a greater chance of growing up emotionally healthy, happy, secure, and resilient.

In other words, when it comes to connecting with your baby or toddler, more is more.

Compassionate and balanced, and focusing on the emotional health of children and moms alike, this book shows parents how to give their little ones the best chance for developing into healthy and loving adults. Based on more than two decades of clinical work, established psychoanalytic theory, and the most cutting-edge neurobiological research on caregiving, attachment, and brain development, Being There explains:

- How to establish emotional connection with a newborn or young child--regardless of whether you're able to work part-time or stay home
- How to ease transitions to minimize stress for your baby or toddler
- How to select and train quality childcare
- What's true and false about widely held beliefs like "I'm not good with babies" and "I'll make up for it when he's older"
- How to recognize and combat feelings of postpartum depression or boredom
- Why three months of maternity leave is not long enough--and how parents can take control of their choices to provide for their family's emotional needs in the first three years

Being a new mom isn't easy. But with support, emotional awareness, and coping skills, it can be the most magical--and essential--work we'll ever do.
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