04/19/2021
Journalist Tucker (The Lion in the Living Room) takes readers on a tour of the “science behind the tender maternal instinct” in this revealing survey. Worldwide, Tucker writes, “more than 90 percent of all women become moms,” yet the “cellular-level revolution that rebuilds the female brain” during pregnancy and beyond is still poorly understood. Among the fascinating topics Tucker digs into are that “moms dream differently than other people,” that experience babysitting can predict postnatal hormone changes in men, and that the inner workings of baby-to-mom messaging (such as fetal movements) “serve an important psychological purpose.” Environmental factors such as access to shelter, chemical pollutants, and socioeconomic background, meanwhile, can increase depression and may even affect a baby’s sex—she cites a Columbia University study which showed that 70% of “the most emotionally and physically maxed-out” participants had girls. Tucker has a knack for making complex science accessible, and she encouragingly touts the importance of mothers having a support system: “New mothers depend on others for physical help... for practical guidance... and also for the more mysterious matter of emotional sustenance.” Moms-to-be in search of a straightforward look at the changes ahead will find this a good place to start. (Apr.)
Shocking and yet somehow reassuring...Whether you're a mom, know a mom (of any species), or ever had a mom (that's pretty much everybody), you are going to want to read this surprising and rigorously-researched book.”
—Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of The Soul of an Octopus
“Mom Genes is witty, reassuring, and takes motherhood out of the footnotes and places it front and center—where it belongs!”
—Louann Brizendine, MD, author of New York Times bestseller The Female Brain
“Filled with jaw-dropping facts and findings, this brilliant, absolutely fascinating book grabbed me from page one. In Mom Genes, Abigail Tucker distills an extraordinary range of cutting-edge research into fun, accessible chapters. Written in an engaging, often hilarious voice, Mom Genes illuminates the biology of everything motherly. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Amy Chua, Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations
“I’m a father, but I found every page of this gripping and wonderful—not least because of the author’s rare skill at making science vividly understandable to lay readers.”
—John Colapinto, New York Times bestselling author of As Nature Made Him
“With thorough research, keen insight, and wry humor, Abigail Tucker shows us why moms are different from other people—even, daresay, special, with superpowers that science is just beginning to reveal. For anyone who is a mother, or who has a mother, her book is an eye-opening tour through the biology and psychology of a role that is once utterly ordinary and wondrously strange.”
–Annie Murphy Paul, author of Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives
“Deeply researched and compulsively readable, Mom Genes illuminates the ancient biological roots of modern motherhood. Tucker narrates vividly and often hilariously on a journey that travels from the nursery to the laboratory and back again, out into the wild and across time. I loved this book and its rich exploration of the causes—and consequences—of becoming a mother.”
—K.S. Bowers, coauthor of Wildhood and Zoobiquity
“An entertaining storyteller, [Tucker] weaves neuroscience with tales from all kinds of mammal moms, including her own travails and joys. If you’ve ever had a hunch that motherhood changed your brain forever, Mom Genes not only confirms your suspicions, but shows you how and why.”
—Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, author of Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything
“Mom Genes is my new favorite book on motherhood: fascinating, informative, funny, and smart as a whip. Abby Tucker is the friend you want to lean on when you’re wondering how to cope with your child, the researcher who can explain a thousand weird, wonderful aspects of parenting, and the quirky thinker who can open your mind to the strangeness and beauty of being a mother.”
—Martha Beck, New York Times bestselling author of Expecting Adam
★ 04/01/2021
The term maternal instinct is a common one, describing the supposedly innate quality that one either has or doesn't have. In her latest work, Tucker (The Lion in the Living Room) examines the hard science behind maternal instinct. Meticulously researched and well-documented, Mom Genes is one part memoir (Tucker intersperses her own experiences as a white mother of four children), and one part incredibly readable popular science. It turns out that far from being born with maternal instinct, mothers instead begin to manufacture the instinct with the onset of pregnancy. Mothers are biologically different from their pre-pregnancy states and from the rest of humankind; for instance, structural changes occur in the gray matter of the brain during pregnancy. What role do hormones and genes play, for example? How do imprinted paternal genes in the placenta work to maximize maternal care? If the maternal state is universal, why is each mother so different? To answer this last question, Tucker explores the effects of differences in health care, income inequality, and racism in addition to biological influences. VERDICT Richly entertaining, filled with humor, and deeply informative, this engaging book is recommended for mothers, potential mothers, and anyone who has ever known a mother.—Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn
2021-02-10
A science journalist navigates the murky waters of maternal instinct.
“My hope is not to momsplain, but for you and I to discover together what divides moms and what unites us,” writes Smithsonian correspondent Tucker. “I want to witness—under a microscope, or inside a monkey corral—the forces that move us all. I want to know what rocks the hand that rocks the cradle.” There are many elements involved in maternal instinct—“a spontaneously arising set of emotions and actions pertaining to the perception and care of babies”—including genetics, hormones, brain chemistry, fear and uncertainty, and external influences from friends and family. Though the author touches on each of these factors, she is often stymied. “We don’t truly know” how the maternal brain shape-shifts; the “findings are mixed and inevitably controversial” when it comes to maternal memory lapses; “maybea few key genes could sway the quality of maternal behavior.” According to one researcher in the field of maternal genetics, “we are at the base of this humungous mountain. We are not sure how to climb it. Everybody is just picking at it in various ways.” Consequently, it’s clear that we are in the nascent stages of such research. Despite some opacity based on learned guesswork, Tucker is a consistently energetic guide, and she doesn’t shy away from discussing “the dangerous and opaque mental problems that hound moms.” In a particularly vibrant chapter, the author explores the countless deleterious effects of poverty and how American society continually fails to provide the support that mothers deserve. Filling in the gaps and moving the story forward are Tucker’s personal observations—she is the mother of four—and the ups and downs of her experiences, many of which will be familiar to mothers of all backgrounds.
Stimulating preliminary notes toward a deeper understanding of an area of science that shows promise.
