New research asks: are today’s mothers better supported or just more overwhelmed?

New research from UCL is exploring how becoming a mother has changed over the past 50 years and whether more advice has made things easier, or more difficult.

The ‘50 Years of Becoming a Mother’ project is following up with women first interviewed in the 1970s, alongside a new group of mothers giving birth at the same London hospital, 50 years on. By comparing their experiences, researchers are looking at how advice, expectations and support have changed over time.

More advice, more pressure?

Early findings suggest that mothers today are dealing with far more advice than previous generations – from health professionals, books and online sources.

While this can be helpful, it can also be overwhelming. One of the questions the research is exploring is how having more information has affected mothers’ experiences.

When “new” parenting trends aren’t new

Looking back at archive material also shows that some “new” parenting trends aren’t new at all.

For example, early potty training (or ‘elimination communication’) is often talked about as a recent idea. But interviews from the 1970s show that some mothers were introducing it even earlier than is common today.

This suggests that parenting advice doesn’t simply ‘get better’ over time but often changes, reappears, and is reshaped for a new generation.

Why this matters

The research offers a reminder that parenting doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Advice, expectations and pressures are shaped by wider social and cultural changes.

Understanding how these patterns shift, and repeat, can help us think more clearly about how parents are supported today.

There’s so much more advice available to parents now but that doesn’t necessarily make things easier. One of the things we’re interested in is how that actually feels for mothers.

Professor Charlotte Faircloth

Professor of Family and Society

Today, 19 March 2026, the project team spoke about the study’s early findings of the study at UCL’s Lunch Hour Lectures, and displayed some of the public health advice materials they examined from archives of the time.