What Makes a Person?: Secrets of our first 1,000 days

Ever wondered why your life and health can sometimes be so hard to control? Or why it seems so easy for other people? Mark Hanson and Lucy Green draw on their years of experience as scientists and educators to cut through the usual information on genetics and lifestyle to reveal the secrets of early development which start to make each of us unique, during our first 1,000 days from the moment of conception. Some surprising discoveries, based on little-known new research, show how events during our first 1,000 days make each of us who we are and explain how we control our bodies, processes that go way beyond just the genes which we inherited. Provoking new ways of thinking about being parents, this book empowers individuals and society to give the next generation the gift of a good start to life and future health.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures; Preface; 1. Now You Are Two – the end of the beginning?; 1.1 Memories are made of this; 1.2 You get that from your father; 1.3 Who cares for you?; 1.4 Parrot fashion; 1.5 Learning on the job; 1.6 Tickling the senses; 1.7 Just checking; 1.8 Self-control; 1.9 Square eyes; 1.10 Learning to protect yourself; 1.11 Gut instinct; 1.12 The end of the beginning; 2. A Narrow Escape; 2.1 On the rocks; 2.2 Who's in control?; 2.3 Exit strategy; 2.4 Best laid plans; 2.5 The compromise; 2.6 Give unto Caesar; 2.7 Constrained circumstances; 2.8 The bigger the better?; 3. Growing in the Dark; 3.1 The stations are not the journey; 3.2 To sleep, perchance to dream; 3.3 Be prepared; 3.4 Practice makes perfect; 3.4 Have a heart; 3.5 Water baby; 3.6 Investing in our bodies; 3.7 A Taste of the Future; 3.8 Nobody is perfect; 3.9 In the darkroom; 4. Sex Appeal; 4.1 Caught in the act; 4.2 50 shades of variation; 4.3 Coding; 4.4 Variety is the spice; 4.5 Grain of salt; 4.6 First conversation; 4.7 Controlling conception; 4.8 Technology to the rescue; 4.9 When is the best time to be conceived?; 5. Shit Happens; 5.1 Managing expectations; 5.2 Lives on the line; 5.3 Greed, gluttony and sloth?; 5.4 A bridge too far; 5.5 The musical score is not the performance; 5.6 I didn't see that coming; 5.7 Man hands on misery to man; 5.8 Women and children last; 6.  The Gift; 6.1 Who's in charge here?; 6.2 Homer Simpson's advice; 6.3 The known and the unknown; 6.4 The personal is political; 6.5 Youth voice; 6.6 Get our act together; 6.7 The buck stops here; 6.8 The gift; Acknowledgements; Further Reading; Index.

About the Author :
Mark Hanson directs the Institute of Developmental Sciences and is Emeritus British Heart Foundation Professor at the University of Southampton, UK. He is a founder of the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He has chaired committees and working groups for the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and WHO. He researches early developmental environment effects on health across the life course, mechanisms and interventions, in high and low- to middle-income countries. Mark pioneered 'LifeLab' to promote health literacy in school students. He has authored over 400 papers and 11 academic and popular books and advocates application of developmental science to health policy. Lucy Green researches and teaches early development effects on lifelong health at the University of Southampton. She advocates for the physiological sciences with the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, as a Trustee of the Physiological Society, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (where she holds the 2019 Senior Investigator Outreach and Engagement Award), and as Head of Engagement in the Faculty of Medicine. She champions public understanding of science including as a British Science Association Media Fellow at the BBC, innovating engagement activities for science festivals and devising health-science experiences for young people which enable them to question expert panels and steer the discussion of big health issues. She lives with her family (of 5,000, 6,000 and 20,000 days) in Hampshire.

Review :
'Hanson and Green's goal here is laudable: they want to spell out damages in order to advocate for pre-conception education, cleaner air, better food, fewer toxins and social supports for all babies.' Times Literary Supplement