Matrescence: Why Discussing The Transition To Motherhood Matters

The word matrescence sounds a lot like adolescence, and that’s not a coincidence. Like adolescence, matrescence — the developmental process of becoming a mother — is a time of transition in nearly every facet of a woman’s life. It changes her physically, hormonally, psychologically, socially, even politically and spiritually.

While adolescence is its own field of study and is well-established in the public consciousness, matrescence is not. But it should be, says reproductive psychologist Aurélie Athan, a research professor at Teacher’s College, Columbia University.

Anthropologist Dana Raphael originally coined the term matrescence in the 1970s; Athan revived it in 2008 and applied it to mental health to give “patience and time and support” to adults transitioning into parenthood, she told HuffPost.

As a psychologist, Athan was interested in how becoming a mother transforms a person’s identity.

“It’s about how I think about myself with my body changing, with my relationships changing: my friends, the peers that I hang out with, my relationship with my significant other, loved ones and family members,” she said.

“But then [it’s] also thinking about myself in the larger world: How do I feel about political systems and social justice? I might awaken to those things now too. And even larger questions like spiritual and religious questions about the sort of origins of all things. So it’s a pretty profound change — and it’s a worldview change at the end of the day.”

Mothers go through the developmental passage of matrescence whether they give birth or welcome a child via adoption or surrogacy. The acute stage typically lasts several years, but the “learning and maturation and growth then takes the rest of the lifetime to do,” Athan said.

Rather than honoring the transformation that has taken place, the cultural conversation around new motherhood, at least in the United States, has too often focused on “bouncing back.” When are you going back to work? When are you going to fit into your jeans again? When are you going to return to the person you were before you had the baby?

Kendra Williams is a motherhood coach and content creator who frequently talks about matrescence on her social media platforms. She told HuffPost that she first remembers hearing the…