Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood

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Almost three years into my own matrescence, this book is the single most powerful, life-changing, heartachingly healing thing I have been given. Woodcox Bolden suggests setting aside five minutes in the morning and another five in the evening to pause and organize the thoughts swirling in your head.

Books – Lucy Jones Books – Lucy Jones

Social media as a sort of new wave of how public health information gets out there was so wonderful,” Athan said. She has reported for the New Statesman from the US and Middle East and her writing has earned her two British Society of Magazine Editors awards and the 2016 Amnesty International Award for best feature. She challenges the ideal of the nuclear family raising children in western societies, when babies are raised by networks of “othermothers” across the world, and in the animal kingdom, including in colonies of bats. We acknowledge the Australia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this nation that we live and work on as the Traditional Custodians of this country.An exploration of the contrast between myth and reality and between individual and social expectations . In a world with so many stressors and a lack of support for new parents, especially mothers, I see a great deal of suffering during the transition to motherhood when ideals of perfection can’t be reached,” Oreck added. We honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' continuous connection to Country, waters, skies and communities. We don’t properly recognise “the psychological and physiological significance of becoming a mother: how it affects the brain, the endocrine system, cognition, immunity, the psyche, the microbiome, the sense of self”.

Matrescence by Lucy Jones - Penguin Books Australia Matrescence by Lucy Jones - Penguin Books Australia

I've tried to change that by reviving matrescence to provide a developmental framework for the transition to motherhood.The exact length of matrescence is individual, recurs with each child, and may arguably last a lifetime! Moving from the early stages of her pregnancy to her eldest child’s first day at school, she describes how the mother’s brain literally changes shape, retaining extra grey matter for years, processing more information, emotion and memory.

Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth

For starters, brief passages that lay out the machinations of nature, and many of its horrors, sit around its chapters. Childbirth brings about a series of very dramatic changes in the new mother’s physical being, in her emotional life, in her status within the group, even in her own female identity. First described by Dana Raphael in the 1970s, and then recently resurrected by Dr Aurelie Athan at Columbia University, Matrescence is the groundbreaking and revolutionary way we now understanding what happens to a woman when she becomes a mother.In many cultures around the world, children are raised by their extended family and members of their community — a practice that stands in stark contrast to the “relative isolation” in which we raise kids in this country, Oreck said. We stand on the shoulders of others and must always acknowledge our foremothers, giving credit where credit is due. As it deepens our understanding of matrescence, it raises vital questions about motherhood and femininity; interdependence and individual identity; as well as about our relationships with each other and the living world. This shift of focus captivates Jones, a new mother at the start of the book, who has a daughter and two sons by its conclusion. This is a book that will be passed among friends and will no doubt bring solace to those reeling from a loss of self, still grappling with their maternal ambivalence and a postpartum universe of fear.