Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain

I clearly remember browsing in the Waterstone's bookstore on Princes Street in Edinburgh, and having a book title jump out at me. That book was Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain by Sue Gerhardt. The author is a therapist in Oxford, England, who helped found the Oxford Parent Infant Project, a counseling center for parents and babies. She synthesizes research in neuroscience, psychology, and biochemistry to show how babies' nervous systems and brains are shaped by their earliest relationships. Here is a quote from the book:

Well-intentioned governments have recognised the need to support family life. They have put measures in place to do so--from tax credits to parenting classes...Although such supports are vital to those who receive them, they are like occasional food parcels for the starving, or to use another analogy, it is most like pouring money into the maintenance of a badly built house. The persistent damp problems, poor heat or sound insulation, subsidence due to poor foundations, may be temporarily alleviated--but nothing can change the fact that the house is not well built and will continue to be high maintenance. Likewise with human beings whose foundations have not been well built. Although expensive repairs may be undertaken later in life, the building stage--when adjustments can be made--is largely over. For prevention to be effective, it needs to be targeted at the point when it can make the most difference. These foundations are laid during pregnancy and in the first two years of life."

I highly recommend this fascinating and relevant book!