ABSTRACT
Social networks change both independently of and in response to shared care processes, so in addition qualitative information was sought about network changes since the child was born. This chapter illustrates the ways in which children’s relationships outside the immediate family were closely linked to the kinds of contacts developed by their parents both in the past and as a response to the transition to parenthood itself. All relatives aged over sixteen outside the nuclear family with whom the child had had contact in the previous year were counted as ‘significant kin’. The current frequencies of interaction recorded in the diaries correlated well with the kin-contact day measure and produced similar groupings of families. In about a dozen families grandparents had come from some distance to stay with the family and give support during the period of childbirth. A few families shared care with old friends or colleagues from outside the local area.
