You don’t need to have been following Alice’s Summer Parenting Diaries on LinkedIn, to be well aware of the acute pressures at play for parents as we battle through until September. To help smooth your summer - and beyond - the Step Up Club has invited clinical psychologist and author of Parenting for Humans: How To Parent The Child You Have As The Person You Are, Dr Emma Svanberg a vital, one off workshop. My partner and I read and listened to the book and it sparked many discussions that helped us to better understand and appreciate why we might see and feel things differently as parents, why we might parent in different ways and what we would like to let go off and try to change. Both of us commented that the book really made us feel seen as parents and receive a really important validation that it is not just us, who at times finds the complex feelings and emotions of being a parent difficult. Understand what we bring to the parenting journey - our hopes, values, views, circumstances, relationships, upbringing - and how you can gain confidence in yourself not just as a parent, but as whole human being We love that you were inspired to follow your career path by your dad, could you tell us a little about his influenceon your career? At Welldoing we are empathetic to the enormously challenging shift that becoming a parent represents. Our content about motherhood is always popular, showing a real need for trustworthy, helpful content in this area. We also know that people reach out to us for help with post-natal depression, as well as for support with all the ups and downs of the fertility journey, which for a saddening number of people may include loss through miscarriage or other difficulties with becoming pregnant.

But the fact is, parenting is hard and once we know this and why, we can forgive ourselves for finding it a struggle, and start to look for the things that make parenting a joy. Parenting for Humans is a book first and foremost for parents. As well as learning to parent ourselves, it will show us how to parent the child we actually have, not a textbook version, but our complicated, messy child with their own powerful needs. And by tuning into their language, learning how to hold them, not mould them, we can really start enjoying them for the funny and unique human beings that they are. I’ve worked as a consultant and trainer for some of the largest school districts in the USA (helping teachers form stronger relationships with students), as well as with some of the most prestigious medical schools and hospitals in the USA (helping doctors form stronger relationships with patients). It’s a hard time for new parents at the moment, with lots of difficult news about maternity services and many parents speak about there being less support around than they would like. If you are anxious about pregnancy, birth or the postnatal period do speak to your midwife. But you can also draw from the experiences of other parents, both those who are more experienced as well as those going through it at the same time. Joining a group of parents who are expecting a baby at the same time as you can create a village that you might turn tofor many years. And speaking to friends and family about their experiences can be useful- you can caveat this by asking people to tell you the things they wish they had knownor the things they found really helpful. Also think about who you would like with you when you are giving birth- often we chooseour partner if we have onebut they are usually alsobrand new to this! It canbe so supportive to have someone alongsideyouwho has experienced birth themselves and evidence shows that having continuous support throughout labour can have a number of benefits (especially someone in a doula role). The term "nuclear family" only emerged in the 1920s. The family structure itself, which centres on two parents and a relatively small number of children, is older, and may be linked to the Industrial Revolution, as the shift from farming to manufacturing allowed for more independent lifestyles. An alternative explanation is that policies of the Western Church in the Middle Ages, which banned marriages among cousins and other extended family members, caused family units to shrink. But even though the nuclear family is such an ubiquitous concept in 20th Century Western research and popular culture, including countless novels, films and TV shows, Sear explains that it's actually rather anomalous, even in the West.What advice would you give to a new expectant mum to help manageher stress and anxiety, and to feel empowered in the delivery room and beyond?

When do you think you became a parent? Was it when you knew a child was going to be coming into your life – or did you only start to identify with that role months or even years after you first met them? How about your child? If you haven’t met your child yet, how do you imagine they will be? Where have those ideas come from? There's always that moment as a parent when you feel like no matter how hard you're trying, you just can't quite get it 'right'. But the fact is, parenting is hard and once we know this and why, we can forgive ourselves for finding it a struggle, and start to look for the things that make parenting a joy. We are clearly different. For most of our time on Earth, humans have lived in extended family units, where mothers would have received assistance from many other family members. In many contemporary human societies, this is still the case. Human fathers are often involved in raising offspring, although the extent of paternal investment varies quite a bit across societies. Infants also receive input from a variety of other relatives, including older siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins and, of course, grandparents. Even small children can play a vital role in helping to sustain and protect younger ones. In such a setting, the burden of looking after children very rarely falls onto one person alone. I could gush a lot but just take my final words, that if you are a human and a parent or a human who is considering becoming a parent then this book is for you.So if you do trust that your parenting information is coming from a reputable source, hold on to the bits that work for you and let go of the bits that don’t. Use it all as part of an experiment, rather than something to get perfectly ‘right’. Some elements will work for you and your family, other elements won’t feel right for you. Some you’ll make up as you go along! Emma gently guides you through each chapter, holding your hand as your embark on a journey of self discovery and reflection (which feels more curious than uncomfortable) because the one thing that can and really does get lost in the swamp of life and parenting is ‘you’.