Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood

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Perhaps reviving the conceptual term matrescence, coined by and borrowed from anthropologist Dana Raphael (1975), would be most apt within the landscape of maternity. There is much to be gleaned as Jones skillfully elucidates the monumental shifts [motherhood] brings. You'll marvel, wince and want to take to the streets after reading Lucy Jones sweeping and courageous multidisciplinary survey of the motherlands. But then [it’s] also thinking about myself in the larger world: How do I feel about political systems and social justice?

Matrescence by Lucy Jones | Waterstones

And why, Jones wonders, had she expected that motherhood would not fundamentally change her personality and identity? She coined the term “matrescence” and by doing so gave us the word to imagine a new, unexplored territory. A decade plus later,hundreds of students have graduated - many of whom now place the mother at the center of their own work. The best book I've ever read about motherhood' Jude Rogers, Observer 'I kept scribbling in the margins: 'We need to know this stuff!The pioneer of attachment theory, John Bowlby, did indeed underline the importance of the proximity of a child to a caregiver in terms of their emotional development, but he also said that parents are equally “dependent on a greater society for economic provision”, and that society should “cherish” its parents. The term deliberately evokes the passage into adulthood — adolescence — though the two aren’t exactly on equal footing in our collective consciousness. I am a clinical psychologist and faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia Universitywhere I revive the term Matrescence through teaching and writing. Their perspectives equalized and served to normalize, rather than pathologize, the 'mixed-feelings’of women.

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

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. Why, Jones asks, do the materials promoting breastfeeding pretend that problems such as low milk supply simply don’t exist, or that the huge demands placed on breastfeeding women – who might nurse their babies over a dozen times in 24 hours, or hourly through the night – are no big deal?Over the past ten years, I have been gathering the data, the stories and the understanding of what happens to a woman when she becomes a mother. I originally applied the term to maternal mental health in 2008 from anthropology to normalize mothers' experiences and offer them a nonpathological description.

Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth

Maybe your best friend lives across the country, but they're available for text support at any time. She may wish to be alone but at the same time want to experience the signs of new life in her changing body.

First-time mom Priscilla Koczon, 39, loved being pregnant and expected to feel much the same way about being a mother. Here are five takeaways that can help moms-to-be (and moms already in the thick of it) get their footing, ​​including tips on how to manage expectations, get the support you need and prioritize time for yourself. First used by an anthropologist in 1973, “Matrescence” describes the process by which a woman becomes a mother.