Mom Genes

Inside The New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct

De: Abigail Tucker

Narrado por: Samantha Desz

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lion in the Living Room comes a fascinating and provocative exploration of the biology of motherhood that “is witty, reassuring, and takes motherhood out of the footnotes and places it front and center—where it belongs” (Louann Brizendine, MD, New York Times bestselling author).

Everyone knows how babies are made, but scientists are only just beginning to understand the making of a mother. Mom Genes reveals the hard science behind our tenderest maternal impulses, tackling questions such as why mothers are destined to mimic their own moms (or not), how maternal aggression makes females the world’s most formidable creatures, and how a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic can make or break a mom.

Weaving the latest research with Abigail Tucker’s personal experiences, Mom Genes “is an eye-opening tour through the biology and psychology of a role that is at once utterly ordinary and wondrously strange” (Annie Murphy Paul, author of Origins).

Good listen. I loved this book.

I can really recommend this book to all mums and everyone who is interested in DNS and it's mysteries.

Thank you!

I read and listen to this book when my youngest daughter was born at 23 weeks in the NICU. This book got me through the last painful year and Was the most validating and comforting book on parenthood I have read. As a child psychologist I was struck by how well it is written and informed by the science. This is an excellent read!

Makes me want to join the Motherhood

I listened start to finish. loved it. wanna be a mom too now!!! The Science of it all was fascinating I didn't want the book to end!!!

Absolutely loved it

So much information in an easy to understand format. As a first time mom I was blown away by all of the things I didn't know.

eye opening

as an adoptive mother this was helpful in understanding my own experiences. the comparative science is fascinating

I wish I had this before my child

Fascinating and enlightening all about how one’s world gets turned upside down by becoming a mother, in the ways one never heard about. Excellent!

Fun But Flawed

I greatly enjoyed Tucker's previous book on domestic cats, and this one has the same funny and breezy tone mixed with genuine science. Like the prior book, though, some of the framing is incorrect.

The clearest example is the chapter on dad genes, which perpetuates incorrect and outdated ideas about the "passive" female body. The placenta becomes the stand-in for father genes, which "take over" the female body functions and "bypass the brain" while the woman "resists" pregnancy. The father somehow "makes the mother." The female body is left as a vessel for "his" offspring, despite having half it's genes from her.

There is no doubt that the placenta is highly invasive, but missing from the picture is that the mother's body **selects for** the sperm and the embryo. The egg interrogates the sperm before fertilization, and the uterus communicates with the embryo before allowing implantation. Far from passive, the female body actively drives whether reproduction is allowed to continue. Also, the placenta does not take over from the brain but from the corpus leteum, which is another temporary organ left from the follicle.

I doubt these came from the author and blame the (male-heavy) scientific establishment for letting these ideas perpetuate. But it made me skeptical of everything else in this book.

You don’t have to a be a mom enjoy this book..

I am not a mom yet but I have enjoyed listening to every minute of this book. The mom experiences the author references I cannot personally relate to, but they were great conversation starters for the moms in my life.

Cringey delivery

If you’ve ever noticed that so many books in this genre have a quippy syntax and corny-ironic humor, this one is no different.

Disappointing.

The title doesn’t fit the science. Wandering story line. Much about the authors own personal feelings, experience. Some of the statements are not scientifically accurate and are her personal take on what she thinks makes sense. I would not have completed the book had it not been one we were reading for Book Club.