Across all cultures parenting is the foundation of family life. It is the domain where adult mental health meets infant development. Beginning in pregnancy, parenting involves many conscious and unconscious processes which have recently been shown to affect a child's development significantly. This book focuses on pregnancy and the first year of life, providing a thorough account of the points of encounter between adult and infant psychiatry. In a fresh and comprehensive way, it summarises knowledge about early parenting, including a critical analysis of parenting, what it means to be a "good enough parent", and its relationship to infant, parent and family outcomes. In addition to the psychiatric dimension, the book emphasises the biological aspects of parenting, parental psychopathology and normal and abnormal infant development.

Praise for Parenting and Mental Health:

"Tyano, Keren, Herrman and Cox have edited a thoughtfully prepared guide on normal and abnormal parenting. They have, with enormous skill and wisdom, helped to unite the important aspects of pregnancy, infant and childhood development and parenting for adult and child and adolescent psychiatrists. World-class internationally recognized clinicians and researchers help make this book useful throughout the world. This is a masterful, culturally sensitive and important book which provides a long overdue and much needed guide on relationships among children, parents and families." -Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S., Professor and Associate Chair for Integrated Medical and Psychiatric Services, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, USA

"During recent decades, progress in the field of infant mental health has been revolutionary; at the same time, there has been rapid development in women's mental health. By bringing these two together, this pioneering book leads its readers to the vital new focal point around perinatal mental health. The book integrates the origins of developmental psychiatry in attachment and systemic contexts and shows concretely how relationship experiences and biology interact when new life begins.

After describing the fascinating world of early parenting, the book focuses on problems, difficulties and disorders during this phase of life and above all on how to support, intervene and treat disorders in parenting. When infants, mothers and fathers are understood in a holistic way, professionals in many fields will be able to promote the transmission of meaningful life through parenthood and parenting." -Tuula Tamminen, Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of Tampere, Finland; Past-President of World Association for Infant Mental Health, President of European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Cover design by Reouth Keren

Sam Tyano is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tel-Aviv University. He is also visiting Professor at Lille University, France. Author of more than 200 scientific articles in international scientific journals, and editor of three textbooks on psychiatry, child psychiatry and ADHD. His main scientific interests are suicidal adolescents, ADHD, infant psychiatry, personality disorders and PTSD.

Miri Keren, also of Tel-Aviv University, is President of the World Association of Infant Mental Health.

Helen Herrman is Director, WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health., Melbourne; Secretary for Publications, World Psychiatric Association; Regional Vice-President Oceania, World Federation for Mental Health; and Vice-President of the International Federation of Psychiatric Epidemiology.

John Cox is a past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He was awarded the Marcé Medal in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the field of perinatal psychiatry and he served as President of the Marcé Society.

Foreword.

List of contributors.

I Introduction.

I.1 A historical overview: infants, parents, and parenting from ancient times to nowadays.

I.2 Definition of some major concepts.

I.3 Structure of the book.

I.4 References.

SECTION 1 Parental Orientations Normal processes.

1 Mothers' and fathers' orientations: patterns of pregnancy, parenting and the bonding process (Joan Raphael-Leff).

1.1 Introduction.

1.2 Pregnancy and the 'placental paradigm'.

1.3 The model of maternal orientations.

1.4 Mothering.

1.5 Postnatal disturbances.

1.6 Contagious arousal.

1.7 Paternal orientations.

1.8 Conclusion.

2 The competent fetus (Sam Tyano and Miri Keren).

2.1 Introduction.

2.2 Continuity from intrauterine life to infancy.

2.3 The competent fetus and its receptive sensorial capacities.

2.4 Fetuses remember and therefore can learn . . . .

2.5 Fetuses can feel pain.

2.6 Fetal psychology: an emerging domain.

2.7 Conclusion: the fetus can no longer be thought as a 'witless tadpole'.

Challenging pregnancies.

3 Single parenthood: its impact on parenting the infant (Sam Tyano and Miri Keren).

3.1 Introduction.

3.2 Single-parent families come in a variety of profiles.

3.3 Single parenthood as risk factor for parental mental health.

3.4 Risk factors for mental health problems among single mothers.

3.5 Single-father families versus single-mother families.

3.6 Single custodial parenthood.

3.7 Psychological characteristics of single mothers by choice.

3.8 A double-edge risk situation: being a single parent of an infant at risk.

3.9 Clinical implications.

3.10 Summary.

4 Surrogate mothers (Olga B.A. van den Akker).

4.1 Introduction.

4.2 Characteristics, motivations and experiences.

4.3 Attachment, bonding and pregnancy.

4.4 Relinquishing the baby and the social context.

At-risk pregnancies.

5 The impact of stress in pregnancy on the fetus, the infant, and the child (Miri Keren).

5.1 Introduction.

5.2 Data from animal studies.

5.3 Human studies of the impact of maternal stress on offspring.

5.4 Discussion.

5.5 Conclusion: implications for social health policy.

6 Unintended pregnancies (Myriam Szejer).

6.1 Introduction.

6.2 The insistence of desire.

6.3 Abortion.

6.4 Rape, incest and denials of pregnancy.

6.5 Pregnancy and mental illness.

7 Clinical challenges of adolescent motherhood (George M. Tarabulsy, Annie Bernier, Simon Larose, Fanie Roy, Caroline Moisan and Claire Baudry).

7.1 Introduction.

7.2 Early challenges faced by young mothers.

7.3 Adolescent mother-infant interaction and the elaboration of attachment.

7.4 Intervention with adolescent mothers and their infants.

8 Psychopathological states in the pregnant mother (Carol Henshaw MD FRCPsych FHEA).

8.1 Introduction.

8.2 General guidelines.

9 When something goes wrong with the fetus: rights, wrongs and consequences (Julio Arboleda-Florez).

9.1 Reproduction and threats to the unborn.

9.2 The rights of the fetus and of the newborn.

9.3 Parental reactions.

9.4 The fate of persons with developmental disabilities.

10 Multiple fetuses pregnancy and other medical high-risk pregnancies (Micheline Garel, Elise Charlemaine and Sylvain Missonier).

10.1 Medical high-risk pregnancies: definition.

10.2 Psychological aspects of multiple pregnancies.

10.3 Pregnancy and HIV, a public health problem.

Assessment of prenatal parenting.

11 Prenatal self-report questionnaires, scales and interviews (Massimo Ammaniti and Renata Tambelli).

11.1 Introduction.

11.2 Semi-structured interviews.

11.3 Self-report questionnaires and sc…