Research shows 67% of couples experience significant relationship decline within 3 years of having a baby. The decline is not inevitable. The 33% who maintain or improve their relationship share specific skills and habits. This clinical work teaches those skills — before, during and after.
The Gottman research identifies exactly what happens and when. Understanding the pattern is the first step in interrupting it.
Partners feel less known and understood by each other. Love Maps — the detailed knowledge of your partner's inner world — deteriorate fast under new parenthood without deliberate maintenance.
Declines sharply and recovers slowly without deliberate effort. The research is specific about why — exhaustion, body image, role shift, resentment — and equally specific about pathways through.
Disagreements about roles, discipline and approach escalate. The argument about how to handle the toddler's tantrums is rarely just about the tantrum. It's about whose values, whose family, whose way.
Appreciation, warmth and fondness erode under sustained pressure. The emotional bank account that all conflict draws on empties faster than couples realise without active investment.
The most powerful window. Couples who do the work before the baby arrives are significantly more resilient in the first year. The BBH program is ideal here. Individual couples sessions are also available for couples with pre-existing issues that need attention before birth.
Free BBH Program →For couples where the first year (or two, or three) has already done significant damage. The distance has been building. The pattern is established. Repair is absolutely possible — but it requires clinical work, not just a weekend away.
Couples Counselling →The argument about the toddler's tantrums is almost always partly a couple issue. Addressing the couple dynamic underneath the parenting disagreement is what produces lasting change. Not parenting coaching — couples work.
Couples Counselling →"The greatest gift you can give your baby is a loving relationship between the two of you."
The research is unambiguous: child outcomes — emotional regulation, social development, academic achievement, resilience — are significantly shaped by the quality of the relationship between their parents.
The BBH Program — Session by Session →A free 20-minute phone call — no forms, no obligation.