Professor Amy Brown is based in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Social Sciences at Swansea University in the UK where she is Director of 'LIFT' - the centre for Lactation, Infant Feeding and Translation. With a background in psychology, she first became interested in the many barriers women face when breastfeeding after having her first baby. Three babies and a PhD later she has spent the last fifteen years exploring psychological, cultural and societal barriers to breastfeeding, with an emphasis on understanding how we can shift our perception of breastfeeding from an individual mothering issue, to a wider public health problem. Professor Brown has published over 100 papers exploring the barriers women face in feeding their baby during the first year. In 2016 she published her first book Breastfeeding Uncovered, followed by Why Starting Solids Matters (2017), The Positive Breastfeeding Book (2018), Informed is Best (2019) and Why Breastfeeding Grief and Trauma Matter (2019). She is a regular blogger, aiming to change the way we think about breastfeeding, mothering and caring for our babies.
Description
Around 45% of families in the UK are now one-child families, increasingly by choice but also due to factors outside parents' control, such as the cost of living, infertility, relationship breakdown and birth trauma. Whatever their circumstances, parents are often told that their child will struggle with friendships, be lonely, or be spoiled, and they may frequently be asked if they are having more children, which can be intrusive and upsetting. Why One-Child Families Matter looks at the evidence surrounding one-child families, showing how childhood experiences and outcomes are complex and shaped by much more than the number of siblings a child has. With strategies to support only children, and contributions from hundreds of one-child families, it reveals the ways that one-child families can thrive.
Introduction 7 1 A brief history of family size 21 2 What are the reasons for being a one-child family today? 36 3 How does it feel to have one child? 78 4 Myth-busting: separating the stereotypes from the evidence 89 5 Supporting your only child 117 6 Supporting parents of an only child 128