Naomi Stadlen obituary

Psychotherapist and author who focused on the communication of mothers with their babies

In the early 1990s, Naomi Stadlen was attending an event at the Freud Museum in London, where her husband, Anthony, was a research fellow, and someone asked her what she did. “Nothing,” she replied, “I just bring up our children.”

Naomi had sold herself short, and she ruminated on this for a long time after the event. In 2004, she brought out her first book, What Mothers Do, Especially When It Looks Like Nothing, in direct reference to that original exchange and her answer. Subsequently described by Anne Karpf in a Guardian review as the “best parenting book you’ve never heard of”, the book became a bestseller, was translated into multiple languages and has been described, by many mothers over the years, as a life saver.