Our Babies, Ourselves

How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent

Author: Meredith F. Small
ISBN: 9780385482578

"In the winter of 1995, in a dimly lit room in Atlanta, I Georgia, I witnessed a birth. Not the birth of a baby, but of a new science, ethnopediatrics". Thus begins Dr. Meredith Small's new, groundbreaking book on the study of parents and infants across cultures and the way different caretaking styles affect the health, well-being, and survival of infants. Her work joins the efforts of pediatricians, child development researchers, and anthropologists across the country who have turned their attention to studying this new science of why we parent our children the way that we do.Each culture, and often each family, offers advice and directives on the right and wrong way to raise and care for infants, from feeding, interaction, and emotional support to sleeping, crying, and more. Yet scientists are finding that what we are taught is the right way to parent our children is often based on nothing more than cultural tradition -- and may even run directly counter to a baby's biological needs.

Publisher: Anchor Books
Publish Date: 1998-01-01

Subjects: Family & Relationships / Parenting / General

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Parenting)