Our aim in writing this book was to draw together two important concepts in the area of couple and family relationships. The first concept concerns the importance of the transition to parenthood: Parenting is one of the most crucial tasks that human beings engage in, and first-time parenthood brings significant changes to the parents as individuals and to their ongoing relationships. The second concept is that of attachment, or bonding, between adult partners. Recent years have seen great advances in the study of adults' attachment relationships; that is, relationships such as marriage that play a special role in meeting our innate needs for comfort and emotional security. As a result, attachment is now recognized as central to personal well-being and effective functioning across the life span. To date, much has been written about the transition to parenthood and about couple relationships as attachments, but these concepts have rarely been drawn together. We see the transition to parenthood as a time when attachment issues are extremely important, as partners must reshape their couple relationship to accommodate a new and highly dependent individual. In fact, a key challenge of new parenthood involves parents tending to the emotional needs of their infant and of each other, while managing the many practical tasks of the household.

For these reasons, we decided to conduct a study that would explore, in detail, the effects of first-time parenthood on individuals and their attachment relationships.