Baby & Child, as it was then called, was written in the 70s. Half a century is a very long life for a book and despite several updates during that time, changes in the book had not kept up with changes in society.
By 2020 it was clear that the book must either be rewritten or die and no sign that it would do this spontaneously. There were close to 3 million copies extant and grandparents continued to pass on well-worn copies to their pregnant children. 
It therefore seemed that there was a place for a modern book that was as much about child development as childcare and that would save parents from the anxiety engendered by the plethora of childcare advice available online.
Rewriting the book was not an easy undertaking.To bring it up to date, it had to include new material about being parents; the demands, difficulties and complexities of modern families.
I also had to introduce a great deal of the last decade’s research on infant and child development, including practical issues such as bedsharing and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, new psychological findings around stress and brain development both in pregnancy and after, the development of pre-speech communication as well as language, Sensory Integration, and the ways in which babies come to put together what hands do and eyes see.
When I first wrote Your Baby & Child it was in and for a world where it was generally expected that most children were born to two heterosexual parents. Those parents were likely to be married and in most families, fathers went out out to work and many mothers stayed at home looking after children. Most mothers were younger than they are today; the average age for a first birth was somewhere in the early twenties. Shared care by both parents was much less usual than now. Mothers who worked outside their homes often relied on grandmothers for childcare and more grandmothers had time available as fewer worked past the pension age of 60. Paid childcare was more often childminding than nursery care.
Today's families come in many different shapes and sizes and the book never assumes that one size fits all. A baby may be cared for by one person on their own, of any gender, or by a couple who may or may not be the biological parents and may or may not be of different sexes.
Changes in parents’ lifestyles have brought many changes in parenting. Many are rooted in the almost universality of work outside the home. Maternity leave is more generous than it was in the 70s, and there is paternity leave also, but the money that can be claimed is so inadequate that few parents take all the time to which they are theoretically entitled. That means a rising demand for childcare for younger and younger babies and a vicious circle for parents who must earn enough to pay for childcare but need more childcare in order to work more hours. The gap between rich and poor is increasing.
There have been big changes in the ways parents divide paid work and home care. There are now many fathers – biological and otherwise, who are the principal carers for young children and perhaps many more men who would like to be so but whose wages are higher than their partners and cannot therefore be afforded.
Parenting styles have also changed. For example, although physical child abuse is devastatingly common and increased during the pandemic, family discipline seems gentler now than a generation ago. Physical punishment was commonplace then, and is now outlawed throughout the UK (and in most of the world) except, shamefully, England. I share with many colleagues a continued campaign against smacking; a longstanding passion to see England follow the international trend and accept that children cannot learn to behave well by being treated badly.
Electronic screens now take up much adult time and are adopted very early by most children who may therefore spend more time indoors and less time interacting
face-to-face with real people. When children do go out, it is often on wheels rather than feet and the increase in car ownership means that streets are no longer safe places for older children to play.
Although many of these changes seem negative for children, child centeredness has increased in many households. Parents talk about their children to each other and to friends and relatives. They talk and read to their children, focusing much of their time and energy on thinking about their wellbeing. Many would agree with the saying that ‘you cannot be happier than your least happy child’.
Penelope Leach is a research psychologist specializing in child development. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and an Hon. Senior Research Fellow at the Tavistock Clinic, and at the Centre for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, Birkbeck. Penelope is a founding member of the Association for Infant Mental Health (AIMH-UK). She is also a mother and a grandmother. In the June 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours Penelope was awarded a CBE for her services to child development and education.