“The brain changes that occur during pregnancy and early parenthood are a superpower, Carmona says. But she cautions pregnant women that neuroplasticity can also lead to vulnerabilities if they have bad birth experiences, lack social support or experience financial or emotional stress.”
—USA Today
“At its heart, this book is a love letter to moms, who have been invisible to the scientific gaze for too long. By putting the intense and wild changes of motherhood into words, Carmona offers us a powerful and necessary story.”
—Science News
“In her detailed debut report, neuroscientist Carmona argues that the profound neural impacts of motherhood are underappreciated and often misunderstood. Likening matrescence, the process of becoming a mother, to adolescence, the transition to adulthood, she explains it is a period of great cognitive growth, adaptation, and vulnerability… a clarifying overview of the science of the maternal brain.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A Mother’s Brain is, in some ways, an ode to the remarkable ‘plasticity’ or adaptability of the brain and body during and after pregnancy…The book directs attention back to the people who are often overlooked once the baby arrives…Carmona’s book will introduce many readers to a field that they might not have realized existed—and, I hope, will leave them asking the question: what about the mum?”
—Nature
ENDORSEMENTS
“Dr. Susana Carmona has been a pioneer in shaping our understanding of the maternal brain. Her research has brought scientific rigor to a topic too often dismissed or misunderstood. In this timely and compelling book, she shares a decade of groundbreaking discoveries that illuminate how motherhood reshapes the brain—with clarity, nuance, and care.”
—Lisa Mosconi, Director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Women’s Brain Initiative; New York Times best-selling author of The Menopause Brain and The XX Brain
“Carmona illuminates the maternal brain—how its size and functionality changes, the way it receives genetic information from the placenta, how it’s permanently altered by pregnancy, and more. A Mother’s Brain is the perfect guide to understanding a transformative process that sits at the center of humanity.”
—Dana Suskind, author of New York Times bestseller Parent Nation and Human Raised
“As a long-term neuroscientist, and a brand-new grandfather, I was absorbed by Susana Carmona’s A Mother’s Brain. Beyond the value of her lucid writing, she has provided parents and health professionals with something that has been strangely missing—an authoritative, scientific overview of what goes on in the brain at this crucial time in the lives of mothers and their babies.”
—Joseph LeDoux, author of Anxious
“Susana Carmona, one of the pioneering neuroscientists to first document structural changes in a new mother’s brain, also happens to be a gifted storyteller. She takes us on a detailed tour of hormonal and neural transformations during this life-altering phase in a woman’s life that is not only scientifically up-to-the-minute but also incredibly readable. I highly recommend this book.”
—Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature, Mothers and Others, and Father Time
“A powerful, awe-inspiring, beautiful book. A Mother’s Brain is fascinating, thrilling, consoling, and accessible, a groundbreaking work by a pioneering scientist at the cutting edge of matrescence research. Carmona shows us how, as a society, we need to honor the intensity of pregnancy, birth, and new motherhood rather than dismiss it. A must-read for all.”
—Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood
“Susana Carmona is a tour de force … [Her] groundbreaking work tackles fundamental questions about the maternal brain, discoveries that are poised to deepen our basic understanding of the human brain and its stunning capacity for plasticity in adulthood.”
—Emily Jacobs, Director of the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, UC Santa Barbara
“With an engaging and accessible approach, A Mother’s Brain effectively covers this new research area applying neuroscience to the transition to parenthood, of which Dr. Carmona is now a world-renowned leader.”
—Catherine Monk, Diana Vagelos Professor of Women’s Mental Health, and Founding Director, Center for the Transition to Parenthood, Columbia University
“Motherhood is transformative: Mothers themselves have recognized this fact for millennia. Now, esteemed neuroscientist Susana Carmona provides the scientific framework for how and why motherhood so dramatically affects women’s brains and hormones. This book is a wonderful gift to mothers, and to anyone who cares about mothers.”
—Darby Saxbe, Professor of Psychology, University of Southern Carolina; author of Dad Brain
“Carmona’s exploration of ‘matrescence,’ the biological transformation of becoming a mother, draws on extensive research that has revealed how pregnancy and motherhood reshape the brain, enhancing social connection, emotional resilience and perhaps even protecting against cognitive aging. This fascinating book uncovers the biological brilliance of the maternal mind and is an evidence-based guide to one of the most profound transformations in human life.”
—Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
