What do you think?
Rate this book
The Emotional Life of Babies: Find closeness, presence and sleep for you and your baby with this compassionate approach to crying
You are not failing if your baby keeps on crying! Do you want to know how - Respond compassionately to your baby's crying? - Understand how feelings affect 'cluster feeding' and frequent night waking? - Accurately read your baby's cues? Do you want to support your baby - Sleep soundly without 'self-soothing' or 'controlled crying'? - Stay connected with their true self? - Heal from birth trauma and daily stresses? In this deeply detailed and informative book, Dr Marion Rose offers the answers to all these questions, drawing on the Aware Parenting approach, which was created by Aletha Solter, PhD. The Emotional Life of Babies explains how crying isn't only a way for babies to communicate their needs. It's also how they heal from daily stresses and larger trauma, as long as we are holding them with compassionate presence. In this way, babies can return to deep relaxation, leading to more restful and restorative sleep. With a research background including studying mothers and babies for her PhD at Cambridge University, Dr. Marion Rose invites you to make your own observations as a parent. In this way, you can differentiate between the two types of crying and between relaxed presence and dissociation. You can also gather evidence and receive reassurance that your baby really does feel more connected, more present, and more relaxed with Aware Parenting. From two decades of working with thousands of parents as an Aware Parenting instructor, and a decade before as a psychotherapist, Dr. Marion Rose supports you to be compassionate with yourself on the journey to transform your parenting. The Emotional Life of Babies includes inspiring true stories from parents who have experienced the life-changing effects of being with their babies' feelings. Discover the powerful role you can play in shaping the foundations of your baby's emotional life so that they can feel at home in their body, as the aware and present being they were born to be. Praise for The Emotional Life of Babies "I believe this is the most fundamental learning of our times. Somehow in 20 years of being in the mental health field I didn't know this vital information and unconsciously yearned for it - the anatomy of feelings. Not some wishy-washy new age concept. No, the exact patterns within which our feelings arise, what happens in the body, and how to respond to them." ─ Clare-Louise Brumley, PhD, OLY "In The Emotional Life of Babies , Marion Rose shares her amazing ability to perceive the world through a baby's eyes. She offers a gentle invitation for parents to put aside preconceived ideas about babies and learn to interpret cues that are often overlooked or misunderstood. With deep compassion, she explains how parents' own childhood experiences can cause them to misinterpret what their babies are trying to tell them. Parents who follow her advice will enhance their baby's emotional development and strengthen attachment." ─ Aletha Solter, Ph.D., founder of Aware Parenting
412 pages, Paperback
Published October 18, 2023
36 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 17, 2024
Absolutely life changing! Can’t recommend more highly
December 21, 2024
I’m sure there is some truth behind the contents in this book for instance, babies have feelings and being close to a parent allows them to release those feelings, I don’t think anyone is contesting that. The rest of it I can’t help but feel is total and utter tripe.
In a nutshell, the method described here is essentially cry-it-out with a twist. It’s cry-it-out with you present holding your baby pretending like it’s ok because they’re reliving their traumatic birth or some other nonsense so don’t bother soothing them that’ll only distract them from this emotional breakthrough. Some might find this idea reassuring, if nothing else works to soothe your baby maybe it is easier to believe this than just accepting that some babies cry. For the rest of us, like we don’t have enough to worry about without this author claiming attempts to soothe your baby suppresses their feelings. Even going as far to say that babies sucking their hands is a dissociative behaviour, rather than a perfectly normal, healthy soothing skill and necessary developmental practice prior to transitioning onto solid foods.
I have no doubt that some experiences babies find overstimulating, but referring to necessary activities parents need to undertake, like going to the mall, as traumatic is reaching. Again, can we not fear monger new parents into never leaving the house by making such exaggerated claims.
I’m not familiar with “Aware Parenting” but if this book represent its teachings, it’s not for me.
In a nutshell, the method described here is essentially cry-it-out with a twist. It’s cry-it-out with you present holding your baby pretending like it’s ok because they’re reliving their traumatic birth or some other nonsense so don’t bother soothing them that’ll only distract them from this emotional breakthrough. Some might find this idea reassuring, if nothing else works to soothe your baby maybe it is easier to believe this than just accepting that some babies cry. For the rest of us, like we don’t have enough to worry about without this author claiming attempts to soothe your baby suppresses their feelings. Even going as far to say that babies sucking their hands is a dissociative behaviour, rather than a perfectly normal, healthy soothing skill and necessary developmental practice prior to transitioning onto solid foods.
I have no doubt that some experiences babies find overstimulating, but referring to necessary activities parents need to undertake, like going to the mall, as traumatic is reaching. Again, can we not fear monger new parents into never leaving the house by making such exaggerated claims.
I’m not familiar with “Aware Parenting” but if this book represent its teachings, it’s not for me.
January 13, 2026
The Emotional Life of Babies is a good book talking about babies feelings and being an aware parent. It pushes back against emotionally cold or overly behavioral parenting and I found that part very valuable.
What didn’t work for me is the author’s near-total rejection of biology and neuroscience. Denying some biological components oversimplifies infant behavior and ignores how immature and vulnerable the nervous system actually is.
This book is best read as an emotional and philosophical perspective, not a full explanation of infant development. It builds empathy, but it needs to be balanced with science-based views.
What didn’t work for me is the author’s near-total rejection of biology and neuroscience. Denying some biological components oversimplifies infant behavior and ignores how immature and vulnerable the nervous system actually is.
This book is best read as an emotional and philosophical perspective, not a full explanation of infant development. It builds empathy, but it needs to be balanced with science-based views.
September 13, 2024
Way too long..
August 17, 2024
Aware Parenting is a truly life-changing and transformative approach to parenting that will not only change the way you view babies and children but radically shift your relationship with yourself and your own healing. This paradigm is so supportive to parents AND children, rather than sacrificing one or the other’s needs.
I love the depth and nuance that The Emotional Life of Babies adds to the existing Aware Parenting resources; it is such a perfect companion to Aletha Solter’s ‘The Aware Baby’ in particular.
I loved how Marion repeatedly emphasises just how many feelings every baby will have everyday for the first year, this information is incredibly helpful for parenting wanting to lean into more listening and meeting your baby’s need for expression. I love Marion’s unique gift of giving so much compassionate, non-judgemental empathy to every parent wherever they are on their journey, I love the practical guidance on how to distinguish more between needs-feelings and healing-feelings, and the emphasis on getting our own needs met and feelings heard.
This book has helped me to feel much more confident to practise Aware Parenting with my second baby right from birth.
I love the depth and nuance that The Emotional Life of Babies adds to the existing Aware Parenting resources; it is such a perfect companion to Aletha Solter’s ‘The Aware Baby’ in particular.
I loved how Marion repeatedly emphasises just how many feelings every baby will have everyday for the first year, this information is incredibly helpful for parenting wanting to lean into more listening and meeting your baby’s need for expression. I love Marion’s unique gift of giving so much compassionate, non-judgemental empathy to every parent wherever they are on their journey, I love the practical guidance on how to distinguish more between needs-feelings and healing-feelings, and the emphasis on getting our own needs met and feelings heard.
This book has helped me to feel much more confident to practise Aware Parenting with my second baby right from birth.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews