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What is Matrescence?
“Matrescence is the radical identity shift a woman goes through as she becomes a mother… like adolescence, it’s the emergence of a whole new identity: physical, emotional, societal, spiritual”
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— Amy Taylor-Kabbaz
Words create worlds.
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Dr. Aurelie Athan
Understanding what Matrescence is helps mothers find the words they need to explain the changes they are going through and to feel less alone.
When a baby is born, so is a Mother
Alexandra Sacks was the first to compare Matrescence to adolescence. In adolescence, a child becomes an adult, and it is socially accepted that this process involves a series of physical, hormonal, and emotional changes that can be challenging to assimilate.
In Matrescence, the transition from woman to a Mother, something very similar happens. In recent years, a multitude of scientific articles have shown that after motherhood, there are many changes in a woman's brain (similar to adolescence) that help her synchronize with the baby and get ready for this transition.
If mothers knew in advance what matrescence is and that all the changes it entails are completely normal, they would not only feel less alone but could also help adjust their expectations about motherhood.
We should talk more about this topic with our friends and that we create spaces for women in this vulnerable stage of their lives. Because going through Matrescence in the company of other mothers helps us understand that we are not alone.
You are not alone
Being a mother in modern times can be overwhelming. We raise our children as if we did not work outside home and work as if we did not have children. Most of us tend to deal with the guilt of not being able to do everything. The nuclear family (if we have one and are not alone in motherhood) tends to consolidate, and we immerse ourselves in that small circle, when to raise children, we would actually need many more hands.
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I was there too. And it was not until burnout knocked on my door that I realized something had to change. We are not meant to go through this alone. And you don't have to accept that. I'm here to help you in that process.