{"id":15565,"date":"2023-06-05T09:53:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T16:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=15565"},"modified":"2023-06-05T09:54:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T16:54:28","slug":"birth-of-a-story-how-new-parents-find-meaning-after-childbirth-hints-at-how-they-will-adjust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/birth-of-a-story-how-new-parents-find-meaning-after-childbirth-hints-at-how-they-will-adjust\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth of a story: How new parents find meaning after childbirth hints at how they will\u00a0adjust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/newparents_top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/newparents_top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/newparents_top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/newparents_top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"A man hugs a woman holding a baby in a hospital room.\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Having a new baby can upend everything about your old life. (Image Source: iStock.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=health\">Health<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Birth of a story: How new parents find meaning after childbirth hints at how they will\u00a0adjust<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  How a new parent tells the story of a momentous event can help them make sense of what happened. Research finds new moms\u2019 and dads\u2019 narratives around childbirth held clues about their transition to parenthood.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Darby Saxbe<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">June 5, 2023<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n         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cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Gather a group of new parents and the conversation will likely turn to their childbirth stories \u2013 ranging from the joyful to the gnarly to the positively traumatic. <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/human-interest\/2022\/01\/birth-stories-feminist-history-internet-sharing.html\" target=\"_blank\">Birth story podcasts and websites<\/a> feature a curated range of birth experiences, and you can buy embossed leather \u201cbirth story\u201d journals as a baby shower gift. People are fascinated by this pivotal, emotionally complex and literally life-and-death experience.<\/p>\n<p>Birth narratives might also contain clues about how the adjustment to parenthood will go.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/203434\/the-uses-of-enchantment-by-bruno-bettelheim\/\" target=\"_blank\">People have long used stories<\/a> to understand difficult experiences. Stories may be particularly valuable as a source of \u201cmeaning-making,\u201d the process of finding order in chaos by making sense of unexpected events, identifying silver linings and discovering the patterns and connections that thread seemingly random events together into a coherent narrative.<\/p>\n<p>In a new study led by <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=YRIcV6YAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao\" target=\"_blank\">Geoffrey Corner<\/a>, a former graduate student in <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/nestlab\/\">my lab<\/a>, we found that the levels of meaning-making in the stories new parents told about their baby\u2019s birth <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/fam0001062\" target=\"_blank\">predicted their relationship quality and parenting stress<\/a> in the child\u2019s first months.<\/p>\n<h3>Constructing meaning in your own life<\/h3>\n<p>Finding meaningful themes and patterns in life\u2019s seeming randomness is a fundamentally human activity. As writer Joan Didion put it, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/40775\/we-tell-ourselves-stories-in-order-to-live-by-joan-didion-introduction-by-john-leonard\/\" target=\"_blank\">we tell ourselves stories in order to live<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMeaning-making\u201d can buffer despair in the wake of tragedy. Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl\u2019s memoir, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beacon.org\/Mans-Search-for-Meaning-P602.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/a>,\u201d argued that meaning and purpose can prevent the bitterness and disillusionment that can otherwise fester after great loss. Research on what psychologists call <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1207\/s15327965pli1501_01\" target=\"_blank\">post-traumatic growth<\/a> has found that the level of \u201cmeaning-making\u201d in people\u2019s narratives about a difficult event predicts their mental health over time.<\/p>\n<p>For example, studies have found <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/a0018301\" target=\"_blank\">links between meaning-making and resilience<\/a> in cancer patients, bereaved parents and caregivers. Cancer survivors might discover that their chemo ordeal brought them closer to friends and family, or helped them step back from the hustle of everyday life and embrace a slower pace.<\/p>\n<p>Although childbirth is typically experienced as a joyful rather than a tragic event, it can still be unpredictable, frightening and even life-threatening. Indeed, psychologists have begun to recognize that particularly difficult labors <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/02646838.2015.1031646\" target=\"_blank\">can trigger post-traumatic stress symptoms<\/a>, not just in mothers but in their partners as well. Even normal, nontraumatic births require parents to cope with hours, sometimes days, of pain and discomfort. Therefore, we hypothesized that meaning-making might be an important part of couples\u2019 birth narratives, potentially promoting resilience in new parents.<\/p>\n<p>To test these hypotheses, we collected birth stories from 77 couples who were participating in our lab\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/nestlab\/research\/\">longitudinal study of the transition to parenthood<\/a>. We visited couples at the hospital within a day or two of their infant\u2019s birth, and audio-recorded them sharing their stories together. We told couples, \u201cWe\u2019d like to hear you tell the story of your birth experience. Start from the beginning and tell us as much as you remember.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Listening for meaning-making in birth stories<\/h3>\n<p>A team of coders listened to each story and recorded examples of meaning-making, using three categories established in the research literature:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Sense-making: Identifying reasons that an event might have unfolded the way it did or making connections that show why an event was meaningful. For example, one mother in our sample found meaning in her long labor, describing her baby as \u201cvery brave and tough\u201d because she survived hours of pushing.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Benefit-finding: Pointing out silver linings or unexpected positive effects of a difficult experience. For example, after a difficult birth, one parent in our sample stated, \u201cIt was scary, but the nurses and the doctors were so nice to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Change in identity: Describing how an event has transformed one\u2019s sense of self. As a parent in our sample said, \u201cI feel like my life has changed completely with the baby now here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Although couples told their story together, we tracked meaning-making separately for each partner. We also rated how much each partner participated in telling their story so we could adjust for their levels of engagement in sharing their birth narrative.<\/p>\n<p>The couples in our <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/fam0001062\" target=\"_blank\">sample were avid \u201cmeaning makers\u201d<\/a>: Almost all the participants made at least some meaning-making statements in their birth stories. Of the three categories of meaning-making, \u201cchange in identity\u201d language surfaced least often, appearing in about 37% of the birth stories. Mothers tended to use more \u201csense-making\u201d and \u201cbenefit-finding\u201d language than fathers. And both members of a couple tended to use similar amounts of meaning-making language.<\/p>\n<h3>Becoming mom or dad<\/h3>\n<p>After we had coded all of the narratives, we next looked to see whether \u201cmeaning-making\u201d predicted relationship satisfaction and parenting stress in our couples. The transition to parenthood can be a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/347802\" target=\"_blank\">crisis event\u201d for the couple relationship<\/a> and is often linked with <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/have-children-heres-how-kids-ruin-your-romantic-relationship-57944\" target=\"_blank\">declines in relationship quality<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But when mothers used more \u201csense-making\u201d and \u201cbenefit-finding\u201d language, they showed a smaller drop in their relationship satisfaction than moms who used less. Fathers who used more \u201csense-making\u201d and \u201cbenefit-finding\u201d language reported lower parenting stress at six months postpartum than dads who used less.<\/p>\n<p>And partners of fathers who used more \u201cchange in identity\u201d language also reported lower parenting stress later on, suggesting that dads who experience the transition to parenthood as transformative may be able to help mothers cope better with new parenthood. On the flip side, though, when mothers showed more meaning-making, their partners actually reported more parenting stress at six months postpartum. It may be that when mothers find the birth experience to be more personally meaningful, partners feel left out or pressured to step up their own parenting.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, these results supported our initial hunch that meaning-making might be detectable in birth narratives and forecast parents\u2019 psychological adjustment after birth. Greater meaning-making language seemed to benefit the couple relationship and largely buffer parenting stress.<\/p>\n<p>This study was limited by a fairly small sample of cohabiting heterosexual parents. Nevertheless, it highlights the value of stories in shaping family transitions. For therapists working with new parents in the wake of a difficult birth, encouraging couples to seek meaning in their birth story may help ease their transition to parenthood. Journaling and storytelling exercises may help couples process their feelings about their childbirth experiences. After all, the birth of a baby is also the birth of a story \u2013 and that story is well worth telling.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/203828\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" \/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/darby-saxbe-346015\" target=\"_blank\">Darby Saxbe<\/a>, Associate Professor of Psychology, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/usc-dornsife-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences-2669\" target=\"_blank\">USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/birth-of-a-story-how-new-parents-find-meaning-after-childbirth-hints-at-how-they-will-adjust-203828\" target=\"_blank\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related News\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-usc-dornsife-helped-shape-singer-songwriter-aloe-blaccs-career\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >How USC Dornsife helped shape acclaimed singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc\u2019s career<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-national-climate-assessment-is-broken-matthew-wielicki-as-lead-wont-help\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >The National Climate Assessment is broken \u2013 appointing Matthew Wielicki to lead it won\u2019t\u00a0help<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/usc-rotc-helped-allison-parra-find-confidence-and-her-calling\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >USC ROTC helped Allison Parra find confidence \u2014 and her calling<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How a new parent tells the story of a momentous event can help them make sense of what happened. Research finds new moms\u2019 and dads\u2019 narratives around childbirth held clues about their transition to parenthood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[87,112,83],"class_list":["post-15565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-expert-viewpoint","tag-psychology","tag-the-conversation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Birth of a story: How new parents find meaning after childbirth hints at how they will\u00a0adjust<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/birth-of-a-story-how-new-parents-find-meaning-after-childbirth-hints-at-how-they-will-adjust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birth of a story: How new parents find meaning after childbirth hints at how they will\u00a0adjust\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How a new parent tells the story of a momentous event can help them make sense of what happened. Research finds new moms\u2019 and dads\u2019 narratives around childbirth held clues about their transition to parenthood.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/birth-of-a-story-how-new-parents-find-meaning-after-childbirth-hints-at-how-they-will-adjust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T16:53:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T16:54:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/06\/newparents_top.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael 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