Online Lecture: Joanna Tucker

‘Every change involves a loss’: transitioning to parenthood – the impact on parents and baby.

In this talk Joanna will illustrate that the transition to parenthood brings losses as well as gains. She will demonstrate how the way each parent experiences having a baby will be complicated by their own past history, and that - just as the major concern during pregnancy is with the baby being born safe and sound - so the early months of parenthood are about keeping the baby alive, and the parents surviving the numerous demands babies bring. New parents will be faced with challenges most of them will not have experienced before and that require them to mature into people who will make sacrifices for the good of others, preferably without resentment. The themes of danger and survival run through this presentation, reminding us all that conceiving and raising children is a life and death affair, sometimes metaphorically and sometimes literally. Nevertheless, Joanna’s talk will end with a sense of hope: hope that if love develops between parents and babies, and parents adjust to the changes in their relationship, then family life can be truly joyful and rewarding.

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Joanna started her professional life as a probation officer, moving later to work with parents and babies as a psychiatric social worker in the field of child abuse. Her desire to work in a preventative capacity and in more depth led to her training as a psychotherapist.

She became involved with the Oxford Parent-Infant Project in 1999 and has had a variety of roles. Currently she is part of the training team.