One in ten women suffers from an episode of significant depression following the birth of a baby. These depressions can have a profoundly negative effect on the quality of the mother infant relationship and, in turn, on the course of child development itself. The first book in a decade to deal exclusively with the impact of postpartum depression on child development, this groundbreaking volume brings together rigorous and sophisticated research from eighteen of the leading authorities in the field.

Lynne Murray received her undergraduate training in the Department of Psychology of the University of Edinburgh where she also carried out her doctoral research. In 1985 she was awarded the Winnicott Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge. Since 1990 she has been supported as a Research Scientist by the Medical Research Council of Great Britain. In 1996 she moved to the Department of Psychology of the University of Reading as a Research Professor where, together with Peter Cooper, she is Co-Director of the Winnicott Research Unit. Peter Cooper received his undergraduate training at the University of Cape Town. He carried out his doctoral research within the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford where he also completed his clinical training. Following a postdoctoral Fellowship in Oxford, in 1983 he took up the Cambridge University Lectureship in Psychopathology. In 1993 he moved to the University of Reading to take up the Chair in Psychology.