Contents
The Words
I write about once a week, in three chapters. They are not stages and you do not pass through them in order. Newest first.
Everything, newest first
Why nobody told you becoming a mother would feel like a loss
You were told about the stitches and the night feeds.
Matrescence vs postpartum depression - the difference that matters
Matrescence is a normal developmental transition. Postpartum depression is an illness.
The self you grieve when you become a mother
Postpartum identity loss behaves like grief because it is grief.
You didn't lose yourself - you became someone else
Postpartum identity loss is the experience of no longer recognizing the person you have been living inside for thirty-odd years.
Postpartum identity loss: is this normal, or is something wrong?
Yes, it is normal.
What is matrescence? The word that names what new mothers feel
Matrescence is the developmental transition of becoming a mother, named in 1973 and still barely known.
Matrescence meaning: why this one word changes everything
The meaning of matrescence, in the sense that matters at four in the morning, is that the trouble is not you.
Matrescence definition - and why it matters that it exists
Matrescence is the developmental transition into motherhood: the physical, hormonal, neurological, social and identity changes that begin in pregnancy or at
The best matrescence books - what they got right (and what they missed)
If you read one book on matrescence, read Lucy Jones's Matrescence, published in 2023.
9 entries. Written by Willow Reed.