The transition to motherhood is huge. Not only have you experienced hormonal fluctuations and biological changes during pregnancy, birth and lactation, your emotional, physical and social environment also experience a dynamic restructuring. The maternal brain is transformed, undergoing neurological rewiring to enable mothers to develop bonds with their babies and manage the new and demanding tasks of motherhood.
This early period often involves navigating a range of unexpected challenges including sleep deprivation, feeding challenges, changes in personal identity, and feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt. These experiences are far more common than many women realise. Having a safe place to explore and express these emotions and feelings can help normalise the experience and reduce the sense of overwhelm and isolation often felt in the postnatal period. Being supported to talk openly, explore practical ways of coping, and reconnect with self-compassion and your personal identity can make the adjustment to this new stage of life feel less overwhelming. Creating time to be kind to oneself — in whatever form that takes — is such an important part of this stage of life.
The period of matrescence was coined by the anthropologist Dana Raphael as “the process of becoming a mother – a developmental passage where a woman transitions, through pre-conception, pregnancy and birth, surrogacy, or adoption to the postnatal period and beyond”. It is important to remember that this readjustment and change to one's identity continues as you continue mothering - into perimenopause, menopause and beyond. There should be no timeline or pressure to 'bounce back' to your old self. Rather, we should approach this ongoing development as mothers with self compassion.
