
Baby Brain
The Surprising Neuroscience of How Pregnancy and Motherhood Sculpt Our Brains and Change Our Minds (for the Better)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.73
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Fiona Macleod
-
By:
-
Dr Sarah McKay
About this listen
If you think baby brain is bad for you, think again - because neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay (author of The Women's Brain Book) has looked at studies and talked to experts from all over the world and the proof is in: giving birth is one of the best things to ever happen to a woman's brain.
Moreover, the positive effects of baby brain last well beyond the baby stage - even into old age, with elderly mothers' brains showing resilience to ageing. Plus, the benefits of baby brain show up for non-birth parents - even fatherhood has a profound effect on the hormones and brains of men.
This fascinating book weaves together baby brain research and interviews with neuroscientists and women's health specialists - many of whom are mothers - with personal experiences from parents concerning baby brain, nesting, maternal instinct, social support, anxiety and sleep. In each aspect the conclusion is clear: having a baby improves a mother's memory, and makes her smarter and more empathetic, intuitive and socially savvy.
Baby Brain contains the ultimate good-news story about mothers' brains, backed up by scientific research from leading experts and presented in highly digestible bite-sized sections by one of Australia's leading science communicators.
©2023 Sarah McKay (P)2023 Hachette Australia Pty LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Nurture Revolution
- Grow Your Baby's Brain and Transform Their Mental Health Through the Art of Nurtured Parenting
- By: Greer Kirshenbaum PhD
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greer Kirshenbaum, PhD. is a neuroscientist, doula, and parent. Her work began with the goal of developing new treatments for poor mental health; she dreamed of creating a new medication to address conditions like anxiety, depression, addiction, and chronic stress. Over time, she realized that science had already uncovered a powerful medicine for alleviating mental health struggles, but the answer wasn’t a pill. It was a preventative approach: when babies' receive nurturing care in the first three years of life, it builds strong, resilient brains.
-
-
I spent the first month of my child’s life…
- By 44105 on 03-07-25
-
Fair Play
- A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live)
- By: Eve Rodsky
- Narrated by: Eve Rodsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fair Play is a time- and anxiety-saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up chores and responsibilities. Rodsky interviewed more than 500 men and women from all walks of life to figure out what the invisible work in a family actually entails and how to get it all done efficiently. With four easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a series of conversation starters for you and your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what's important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore from laundry to homework to dinner.
-
-
For Coupled People
- By Brandy Patrick on 10-02-19
By: Eve Rodsky
-
Breath
- The New Science of a Lost Art
- By: James Nestor
- Narrated by: James Nestor
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices.
-
-
Does NOT coincide with Book text
- By FamAzz on 07-13-20
By: James Nestor
-
How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen
- A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
- By: Joanna Faber, Julie King
- Narrated by: Heather Alicia Simms, Michele Pawk, Candace Thaxton, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What do you do with a little kid who...won't brush her teeth...screams in his car seat...pinches the baby...refuses to eat vegetables...runs rampant in the supermarket? Organized according to common challenges and conflicts, this book is an essential emergency first-aid manual of communication strategies, including a chapter that addresses the special needs of children with sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders.
-
-
The message is great but the narration and writing style cringey
- By Elliott Family on 07-23-19
By: Joanna Faber, and others
-
Hold On to Your Kids
- Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers
- By: Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Gabor Maté MD, Daniel Maté
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Neufeld and Dr. Maté explore the phenomenon of peer orientation: the troubling tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction—for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behavior. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; it is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids.
-
-
Very very disappointed
- By CristinaPG on 01-11-20
By: Gordon Neufeld, and others
-
What Happened to You?
- Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
- By: Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry
- Narrated by: Bruce D. Perry, Oprah Winfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
-
-
I waited more than 30 years for this book.
- By Gary S. on 04-28-21
By: Oprah Winfrey, and others
-
The Nurture Revolution
- Grow Your Baby's Brain and Transform Their Mental Health Through the Art of Nurtured Parenting
- By: Greer Kirshenbaum PhD
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Greer Kirshenbaum, PhD. is a neuroscientist, doula, and parent. Her work began with the goal of developing new treatments for poor mental health; she dreamed of creating a new medication to address conditions like anxiety, depression, addiction, and chronic stress. Over time, she realized that science had already uncovered a powerful medicine for alleviating mental health struggles, but the answer wasn’t a pill. It was a preventative approach: when babies' receive nurturing care in the first three years of life, it builds strong, resilient brains.
-
-
I spent the first month of my child’s life…
- By 44105 on 03-07-25
-
Fair Play
- A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live)
- By: Eve Rodsky
- Narrated by: Eve Rodsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fair Play is a time- and anxiety-saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up chores and responsibilities. Rodsky interviewed more than 500 men and women from all walks of life to figure out what the invisible work in a family actually entails and how to get it all done efficiently. With four easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a series of conversation starters for you and your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what's important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore from laundry to homework to dinner.
-
-
For Coupled People
- By Brandy Patrick on 10-02-19
By: Eve Rodsky
-
Breath
- The New Science of a Lost Art
- By: James Nestor
- Narrated by: James Nestor
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices.
-
-
Does NOT coincide with Book text
- By FamAzz on 07-13-20
By: James Nestor
-
How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen
- A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7
- By: Joanna Faber, Julie King
- Narrated by: Heather Alicia Simms, Michele Pawk, Candace Thaxton, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What do you do with a little kid who...won't brush her teeth...screams in his car seat...pinches the baby...refuses to eat vegetables...runs rampant in the supermarket? Organized according to common challenges and conflicts, this book is an essential emergency first-aid manual of communication strategies, including a chapter that addresses the special needs of children with sensory processing and autism spectrum disorders.
-
-
The message is great but the narration and writing style cringey
- By Elliott Family on 07-23-19
By: Joanna Faber, and others
-
Hold On to Your Kids
- Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers
- By: Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Gabor Maté MD, Daniel Maté
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Neufeld and Dr. Maté explore the phenomenon of peer orientation: the troubling tendency of children and youth to look to their peers for direction—for a sense of right and wrong, for values, identity and codes of behavior. But peer orientation undermines family cohesion, poisons the school atmosphere, and fosters an aggressively hostile and sexualized youth culture. It provides a powerful explanation for schoolyard bullying and youth violence; it is an escalating trend that has never been adequately described or contested until Hold On to Your Kids.
-
-
Very very disappointed
- By CristinaPG on 01-11-20
By: Gordon Neufeld, and others
-
What Happened to You?
- Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
- By: Oprah Winfrey, Bruce D. Perry
- Narrated by: Bruce D. Perry, Oprah Winfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
-
-
I waited more than 30 years for this book.
- By Gary S. on 04-28-21
By: Oprah Winfrey, and others
-
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog
- And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook -- What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing
- By: Bruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz
- Narrated by: Chris Kipiniak
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How does trauma affect a child's mind—and how can that mind recover? In the classic The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry explains what happens to the brains of children exposed to extreme stress and shares their lessons of courage, humanity, and hope. Only when we understand the science of the mind and the power of love and nurturing can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.
-
-
Nice to see some good come to those abused/neglect
- By C. Turner on 06-07-19
By: Bruce D. Perry, and others
-
The Myth of Normal
- Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
- By: Gabor Maté MD, Daniel Maté
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the rise. So what is really “normal” when it comes to health?
-
-
Bought book after hearing podcast...
- By Adrian on 09-14-22
By: Gabor Maté MD, and others
-
Childhood Disrupted
- How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal
- By: Donna Jackson Nakazawa
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The emotional trauma we suffer as children not only shapes our emotional lives as adults but also affects our physical health and overall well-being. Scientists now know on a biochemical level exactly how parents' chronic fights, divorce, death in the family, being bullied or hazed, and growing up with a hypercritical, alcoholic, or mentally ill parent can leave permanent, physical "fingerprints" on our brains.
-
-
some disturbing content, overall very imformative
- By Tryintolivenatural on 11-12-15
-
Behave
- The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
- By: Robert Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 26 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the celebrated neurobiologist and primatologist, a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior, both good and bad, and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do? Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: He starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from there, in stages, ultimately ending up at the deep history of our species and its evolutionary legacy.
-
-
Insightful
- By Doug Hay on 07-27-17
By: Robert Sapolsky
-
The Teenage Brain
- A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
- By: Frances E. Jensen, Amy Ellis Nutt
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert, Frances E. Jensen
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on her research, knowledge, and clinical experience, internationally respected neurologist--and mother of two boys--Frances E. Jensen, MD, offers a revolutionary look at the adolescent brain, providing remarkable insights that translate into practical advice both for parents and teenagers.
-
-
Preachy and Uninformative
- By endlessemma on 05-16-16
By: Frances E. Jensen, and others
-
Emotional Intelligence
- By: Daniel Goleman
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the tenth anniversary since the first publication of Daniel Goleman's groundbreaking bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, which maps the territory where IQ meets EQ, where we apply what we know to how we live. Spending over a year on the New York Times bestseller list, Emotional Intelligence provided the evidence for what many successful people already knew: being smart isn't just a matter of mastering facts; it's a matter of mastering your own emotions and understanding the emotions of the people around you.
-
-
Good info, hard to listen sometimes
- By Stephanie on 04-16-03
By: Daniel Goleman
-
Brain Rules for Baby (Updated and Expanded)
- How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five
- By: John Medina
- Narrated by: John Medina
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Brain Rules for Baby, Dr. John Medina shares what the latest science says about how to raise smart and happy children from zero to five. This book is destined to revolutionize parenting. Just one of the surprises: The best way to get your children into the college of their choice? Teach them impulse control. Brain Rules for Baby bridges the gap between what scientists know and what parents practice.
-
-
The Only Baby Book I'd Recommend
- By Erik on 08-14-15
By: John Medina
-
The Female Brain
- By: Louann Brizendine M.D.
- Narrated by: Louann Brizendine M.D.
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why are women more verbal than men? Why do women remember details of fights that men can't remember at all? Why do women tend to form deeper bonds with their female friends than men do with their male counterparts? These and other questions have stumped both sexes throughout the ages. Now, pioneering neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, M.D., brings together the latest findings to show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think and what they value.
-
-
Great material :^D -- Agonizing orator >:^(
- By Michael Dillman on 01-04-08
-
Mother Hunger
- How Adult Daughters Can Understand and Heal from Lost Nurturance, Protection, and Guidance
- By: Kelly McDaniel
- Narrated by: Kelly McDaniel
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An insatiable need for sex and love. Periods of overeating or starving. A pattern of unstable and painful relationships. Does this sound painfully familiar? Trauma counselor Kelly McDaniel has seen these traits over and over in clients who feel trapped in cycles of harmful behaviors - and are unable to stop. Many of us find ourselves stuck in unhealthy habits simply because we don't see a better way. With Mother Hunger, McDaniel helps women break the cycle of destructive behavior by taking a fresh look at childhood trauma and its lasting impact.
-
-
Good but …
- By EllenP on 01-19-22
By: Kelly McDaniel
-
Scattered Minds
- The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder
- By: Gabor Maté MD
- Narrated by: Daniel Maté
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From renowned mental health expert and speaker Dr. Gabor Maté, Scattered Minds explodes the myth of attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) as genetically based—and offers real hope and advice for children and adults who live with the condition.
-
-
Medication
- By Abby on 03-06-23
By: Gabor Maté MD
-
Social Intelligence
- The New Science of Human Relationships
- By: Daniel Goleman
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In richly anecdotal detail, Goleman brings to life the field of social neuroscience that has emerged in the decade since the publication of Emotional Intelligence. He shows that, far more than we are consciously aware, our daily encounters with parents, spouses, bosses, and even strangers shape our brains and affect cells throughout our bodies. Our relationships create a setpoint for our daily moods and influence our immune response; they are crucial to achievement in students and workers; they determine whether or not some genes are expressed, for good or ill.
-
-
Don’t torture yourself
- By Steve on 08-26-07
By: Daniel Goleman
-
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control
- How the Pill Changes Everything
- By: Sarah Hill
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This paradigm-shattering book provides an even-handed, science-based understanding of who women are, both on and off the pill. It will change the way that women think about their hormones and how they view themselves. It also serves as a rallying cry for women to demand more information from science about how their bodies and brains work and to advocate for better research. This book will help women make more informed decisions about their health, whether they're on the pill or off of it.
-
-
Alright.
- By brenda on 01-18-20
By: Sarah Hill