Hi, I’m Dr Jen – mother, neuroscientist, researcher, and creator of Tough Mothers. I have been researching neuroplasticity - the brain’s ability to modify, change and adapt itself in both structure and function, as a result of our experiences and actions - for over 20 years. Initially largely on a micro level in medical research (I have a PhD in neuroscience), and in the last decade mostly on a macro level and in private practice (I also have a degree in Psychotherapy). Specifically, I look at how matrescence – the developmental transition a woman goes through when she becomes a mother - affects mothers’ brains, and how we can use this life-changing transformation to our advantage, by intentionally and simply training our brain to create a motherhood life we thrive in. I didn’t deliberately set out on this path. It was something that I unintentionally developed when I was strugglingly indescribably after I had my third baby. I was desperate for a solution to feel better in motherhood. It was through my transition from struggling in motherhood to thriving that I learned: when we become mothers the brain changes are massive. Yet we are not taught this. We are not taught that these changes will affect us profoundly on a psychological level, and will therefore affect our wellbeing and our whole life. I wrote I Wish Someone Had Told Me… because, while having my own 3 kids, I realised a woman’s experience of labour, birth and the first few weeks postpartum affect our whole life. When we are caught off-guard during this life-changing experience, it affects our brain tremendously. The more prepared we can be for the transition into motherhood – matrescence – the better, as it allows us to intentionally shape our motherhood life. For more information please see www.ToughMothers.com