9 Months In, 9 Months Out: A Scientist’s Tale of Pregnancy and Parenthood

Expertise can explain the science of what’s happening to a fetus or a baby throughout development, but all the science in the world can’t tell you what it feels like to have a baby: the pang of morning sickness, the pain of labor, the excitement of birth, and the joy that comes from seeing your baby’s first smile. 9 Months In, 9Months Out explores what we actually experience in the nine months of pregnancy and the nine months that follow.As a professor of infant and child development, author Vanessa LoBue had certain expectations about how pregnancy and motherhood would go. Experiencing it was a different story. As she learned, the first few months of parenthood are much harder than anyone tells you. Written month-to-month in real time as LoBue proceeded through pregnancy and first-time parenthood, 9 Months In, 9 Months Out integrates science and infant development with the personal journey involved in becoming a parent. LoBue also takes a researcher’s lens to issues that are top of mind for new parents: breastfeeding, the sleep training controversy, gender development, the science (or lack thereof) behind the link between vaccinations and autism, and the debate over screen time.