While dozens of parenting books address child development, Ann Pleshette Murphy's The 7 Stages of Motherhood addresses the development of mothers, who are transformed right alongside their children. As the former editor of Parents magazine and current parenting contributor to Good Morning America, Murphy brings the voices of the experts and a decade of her own knowledge and unforgettable stories from her own life to bear on this book. The mother separating from her nursery-school-aged child is vastly different from the mother caring for her newborn baby, who, in turn, differs from the mother of a teenage son or daughter. In tandem with a child's development, a mother experiences changes for which she is often completely unprepared for, including shifts in her friendships, her professional expectations, her marriage, and her deepest desires.