This volume offers an overview of the latest research on perinatal adaptation among women who have faced trauma, loss and/or adversity, both in childhood and/or as an adult, and describes the varied trajectories of adaptive and maladaptive coping that follow. The range of outcomes considered span from health-limiting (e.g. mental illness, substance use, unhealthy life style behaviours) to health-promoting (e.g. resilience and posttraumatic growth).  These outcomes are examined both in relation to mothers’ experience of motherhood and parenting, and with regard to their children’s lives. Interpersonal trauma, experienced in childhood and/or or adulthood, can have a profound effect on how women experience the transition into motherhood – from pregnancy, to childbirth, and postpartum caregiving. Women across the globe are exposed to high rates of interpersonal violence, and face the physical and emotional consequences of such events. The shift into motherhood is an emotionally evocative period in a woman’s life, entailing not only challenges, but also the potential for healing and growth. Individual chapters will present state-of-the-art research, and will also highlight the voices of women who have personally experienced trauma, illustrating the effects on their experiences as mothers. Throughout the book, the consistent emphasis is on clinical implications and on ways that providers can create a context for healing and growth with the help of current evidence-based and promising treatment methods.

Table of Contents:
Part 1. Introduction-. Mental Health Problems Among Childbearing Women: Historical Perspectives and Social Determinants.- Part 2. Trauma and Consequences for Mother and Child.- Childhood Maltreatment and Motherhood: Implications for Maternal Well-Being and Mothering.- The effects of intimate partner violence on the early caregiving system.- The Slippery Slope of Birth Trauma.- Reproductive Loss and its Impact on the Next Pregnancy.- Part 3. The Biological Impact of Maternal Trauma.-Trauma Exposure: Consequences to Maternal and Offspring Stress Systems.- Maternal trauma and related psychopathology: Consequences to parental brain functioning associated with caregiving.- Part 4. Healing and Recovery.- Resilience, Recovery, and Therapeutic Interventions for Peripartum Women with Histories of Trauma.- Parenting in the context of trauma: Dyadic interventions for trauma-exposed parents and their young children.- Enhancing Emotion Regulation: The TARGET Approach to Therapy with TraumatizedYoung Mothers.- Mom Power: A Parenting Group Intervention for Mothers with Trauma Histories.- Project BRIGHT: An Attachment-Based Intervention for Mothers with Substance Use Disorders and their Young Children.- Survivor Mom’s Companion: A Population-Level Program for Pregnant Women Who are Survivors of Childhood Maltreatment: The Need for a Public Health Approach to Addressing Unresolved Maternal Trauma.- Military Moms: Deployment and reintegration challenges to motherhood.- Maternal experience of neonatal intensive care unit hospitalization: Trauma exposure and psychosocial responses.