First-Time Parenting Journeys

Damien W. Riggs is a Professor of Psychology at Flinders University, Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and a psychotherapist who specialises in work with trans children. He has authored more than twenty books, including Diverse Pathways to Parenthood: From Narratives to Practice (2020). Clare Bartholomaeus is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Flinders University, Australia. Her previous books include Home and Away: Mothers and Babies in Institutional Spaces (with Kathleen Connellan, Clemence Due, and Damien Riggs, 2021) and Transgender People and Education (with Damien Riggs, 2017).

• 1. Introduction; 2. Undertaking a Qualitative Longitudinal research study with intending parents; 3. Motherhood moralities; 4. Birthing experiences; 5. Emotion work in the transition to motherhood; 6. Development of a parental identity; 7. Views about having more children; 8. Changes in the couple relationship over time; 9. Grandparents navigating shifts in relationships and identity; 10. Reflecting on the study findings and experience.

'Ever considered the gap between expectations of parenthood and the reality? This book offers insights for readers contemplating parenthood, while giving social scientists and their students glimpses into how feelings absorb social norms into personal family values. Moving, readable, and methodologically rigorous, this book is a rare gem!' Fiona Tasker, Birkbeck University of London, UK