Welcome to the Emotional Experiences of Early Parenthood in Australian Families digital resource.
Here, you can find out about people’s emotional experiences of becoming a parent by seeing and hearing 45 parents living in Australia share their personal stories on film and audio-recording.
Our researchers travelled around Victoria and New South Wales to talk to 36 mothers and 9 fathers from a range of backgrounds and family arrangements. Find out what parents said about their experiences of conceiving, IVF, miscarriage, surrogacy, adoption, pregnancy, labour and birth, perinatal depression, life in early parenthood, relationships after becoming a parent, balancing parenthood with paid work, and advice to expecting and new parents as well as health professionals – to mention just some of the many topics covered! We hope you find the information helpful and reassuring.
You can start by watching an introduction from Monica Dux (social commentator, author of Things I Didn’t Expect (When I was Expecting), and editor of Mothermorphosis), and a preview of some of the clips below. You can also go straight to the ‘Talking Points’ on the left, or explore ‘People’s Profiles’ to learn more about the parents we talked to.
Introduction by Monica Dux
Watch a preview of some of the interviews
This website represents a partnership between Healthdirect Australia, Monash University and Healthtalk Australia.