Among the characteristic behaviors and mental states that characterize the initiation of parenting and attachment related behaviors in humans are an intensive preoccupation and focus on the infant to the near exclusion at least initially of all else, anxious intrusive thoughts regarding the wellbeing of the infant, and a need to check the infant repeatedly and ensure that things are "just right".  These mental states and behaviors, while perhaps different cross-culturally in their specific manifestations, are nearly universal in their constellation and occurrence around the time of an infant’s birth and in the subsequent early months.  The transforming emergence of these characteristic mental states and the associated parenting behavior around the birth of a child appears to be governed by a cascade of genetic and epigenetic events that reorganize hypothalamic and limbic brain circuits.   Based on emerging animal models studies, it appears that many of these circuits overlap with the neurohormonal systems involved in physiological and hedonic homeostasis as well as stress response and anxiety mediation.  The goal of this presentation is to provide an overview of recent studies regarding the neural circuitry of early affiliation and reorganization of neural systems for parents with the birth of an infant.   We will also discuss how findings regarding neural circuits involved in thinking about others overlap with those systems active in caring for an infant.  Finally, we will relate these new data from multiple perspectives to implications for interventions with parents and infants.