In short
Just as adolescence describes a teenager's passage into adulthood, matrescence describes a woman's transition into motherhood and all the change that comes with it. It touches every area of your life, and it goes far beyond the first year.
A name for what you're feeling
Just as adolescence describes a teenager's passage into adulthood, matrescence describes a woman's transition into motherhood and all the psychological and physical change that comes with it.
A medical anthropologist named Dana Raphael first named it in the 1970s, and decades later a clinical psychologist named Dr Aurélie Athan brought the word back into the light.
It touches every part of your life
Matrescence does not create a change in one area of your life but in all areas of your life: physical, hormonal, emotional, social, cultural, economic and spiritual.
There may be talk around the physical and hormonal changes, and maybe you know you might feel emotional around day three, but that's just about it. All these other areas aren't really discussed, or you just don't understand how they are going to impact you personally.
Does matrescence ever end?
Matrescence goes far beyond the first year of motherhood. It's the transformation that begins the moment you become a mother and keeps unfolding as you grow. Every season, the newborn fog, the toddler whirlwind, the primary-school years, the teenage years, the quiet of an emptying nest, is another turn of the cycle.
You don't have to move through it alone
Matrescence is an invitation for a woman to explore who she really is. She is new, and she can choose what she is going to pick up and what she is going to leave behind. To do that, she needs a safe place, with other women around her.
I'm a wellbeing mentor. This is gentle guidance for your wellbeing, and is not medical or psychological advice. If you are finding things really hard, please talk to your GP, or call the PANDA helpline on 1300 726 306.