Author recommended book title:

I am sometimes asked, which of my books is the most useful or important to read.  While the answer depends primarily on the interests and needs of the reader, the one which I feel most passionately about is “What Babies and Children Really Need”.

Originally written under the working title  “First Love – Valuing Motherhood in Modern Society”, it was written with the intention of explaining why what happens to mothers before conception, during pregnancy, birth and in the first years of a child’s life has a profound influence on the developing child.  It was also written to explain how natural physical processes were designed to nurture the developing child and to give parents and parents of the future a sound knowledge of children’s biological needs on which to make parental choices.

As both professionally and personally I witness many of the problems we see in society today, the more  passionately I feel about the education of young adults in children’s biological needs.   While I still prefer the working title of “First Love”, chosen on the basis that the first love affair of life is a child’s unquestioning love for its mother, and the quality of this relationship will influence the child’s ability to regulate its own emotional  state for many years ahead, “What Babies and Children Really Need” covers prenatal, natal and post natal influences, providing a reminder that as human beings we are also members of the species of mammals.  Just as other young mammals need physical nurture, opportunity for physical interaction, social engagement and rough and tumble play for healthy development, the human infant also needs these experiences for optimum well being. This book explains how parents and society can create an optimum environment to meet the needs of the developing child.