Lab Building
Bounded Mother
Many people now expect a child to cost them their sleep, their body, their relationship and themselves, and some decide against children on that expectation alone. Bounded Mother follows a woman, and her partner, from imagining a child to pregnancy, the first three months and the first years, and asks of each fear the question Thomas Sowell asked of every claim: compared to what? It is built like Instagram, with stories, illustrated posts to swipe through and quotes to share, and each post holds a piece of research: how the brain changes in pregnancy, how crying peaks at around six weeks and then falls, how most parents keep their wellbeing or recover it, what happens to couples and to sex after a baby, and when to go to a midwife, GP or perinatal team. The aim is to help a woman decide with the research in front of her, rather than with the loudest stories alone.
The idea we are testing
Connected to the Bounded Companion
Bounded Mother uses the same account of how minds learn as the Bounded Companion, and passes a question over to it when a mother wants to think something through.
Where it is now
A first prototype exists. It is unfinished and changes often, so what you see may differ from what we finally release.
When it is ready, it graduates into a product or service.
Who it is for
The research behind the fears, so the decision rests on more than the loudest stories.
Short posts for pregnancy, the first weeks and the first years, read in the minutes a baby allows, with the routes to a midwife, GP or perinatal team one tap away.
Something to recommend, with full sources, that explains what a family is going through without frightening them.
Taking part
We are looking for mothers, partners, midwives and perinatal psychologists in England and Portugal who want to try it and tell us what is unclear or missing.
We're here to help
Let's talk
Tell the Companion about a moment that puzzles you, or write to Ricardo directly.