Seeds For Your Garden - Maternal Instinct: Fact or Fiction?

Life After Birth with Yara Heary

In this solo episode I explore the concept of maternal instinct which fell back onto my radar in recent weeks following a viral video featuring Maggie Dent and Kate Richie. I discuss my own thoughts on this topic, recent research on the neurobiology of the mother and father brain, patriarchal implications; and emphasise the importance of understanding parenting to be a skill that transcends one’s sex or gender and is not dictated by biology alone.

**Additional Reading at the bottom of these show notes
Here is where you can find out more about me (Yara), how to work with me and some resources:

Why Am I So Angry Workshop

*** Waitlist for The Rebirth, Group Coaching for Mamas *** This is my signature 3 months online group coaching container for mothers which covers family of origin, inner child work, nervous system basics, anger, boundaries and much more.

@lifeafterbirthpsychology

www.lifeafterbirth.com.au

Free Inner Critic Workbook

Free Values Aligned Living Workbook

If you’d like to read up on some of the literature I used to inform this episode, please see the titles below and there are many more available on google scholar:

Abraham, E., Hendler, T., Shapira-Lichter, I., Kanat-Maymon, Y., Zagoory-Sharon, O., & Feldman, R. (2014). Father's brain is sensitive to childcare experiences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(27), 9792-9797.
Ruth Feldman [e-mail] (2012) Bio-behavioral Synchrony: A Model for Integrating Biological and Microsocial Behavioral Processes in the Study of Parenting, Parenting, 12:2-3, 154-164, DOI: 10.1080/15295192.2012.683342

Conaboy, Chelsea. "Maternal Instinct Is a Myth That Men Created." International New York Times (2022): NA-NA.
Cabrera, N. J., Volling, B. L., & Barr, R. (2018). Fathers are parents, too! Widening the lens on parenting for children's development. Child Development Perspectives, 12(3), 152-157.

Feldman, R. (2017). The neurobiology of human attachments. Trends in cognitive sciences, 21(2), 80-99.

Feldman, R. (2015). The adaptive human parental brain: implications for children's social development. Trends in neurosciences, 38(6), 387-399.

Scatliffe, N., Casavant, S., Vittner, D., & Cong, X. (2019). Oxytocin and early parent-infant interactions: A systematic review. International journal of nursing sciences, 6(4), 445-453.

Bakermans‐Kranenburg, M. J., Lotz, A., Alyousefi‐van Dijk, K., & van IJzendoorn, M. (2019). Birth of a father: Fathering in the first 1,000 days. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 247-253.

Feldman, R., Braun, K., & Champagne, F. A. (2019). The neural mechanisms and consequences of paternal caregiving. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 20(4), 205-224.

Looking for support for anger while you mother? To access my Why Am I So Angry Workshop click HERE