Ma... what??? Ma-tress-ence, did you struggle to pronounce it too? Let alone even understand what it encompasses!?

Can you imagine as a teenager not being educated about your menstrual cycle, and then waking up one morning with your period?

How confusing, scary and overwhelming that would feel. What if your period was something that you never really got an explanation about, was just told, “oh that just happens once a month, we all just put on a smile and keep quiet about it not to make others uncomfortable’’. Adolescence is a time in our life where we experience physical, emotional, biological changes. Society expects, educates and supports (to some extent), these changes. We know to expect a period, we know our breasts will grow, we know our mood fluctuates, we know our identity evolves.

But, what about the transformative process of matrescence? 

Not just conception, pregnancy and birth, but the weeks, months and years afterwards? 

What are we taught to expect the transition to motherhood to be like?

Did you know about the neurological and biological brain changes that take place for mothers? “I believe Matrescence is more biologically significant than adolescence. It’s a pretty big call but if we have a look at the brain changes, there’s more neurogenesis (Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain) occurring during pregnancy than there is during an entire adolescent time” 

- Dr Oscar Serrallach

Sure we know that when we are pregnant our belly will grow. We expect we may have food cravings. We expect when baby arrives our breasts will swell. But there is so much more to becoming a mother and a parent that is not discussed, that we don’t know to expect, and that our society just doesn’t support. A lack of understanding about matrescence is problematic for so many reasons.

Some of these problems include:

• Mothers experiencing unnecessary self-blame, guilt, and criticism

• Challenges that feel individual and isolating (it’s just me, I’m failing)

• Society doesn’t provide sufficient support for the transition

If, as a society, we had a better understanding of matrescence, just like we do adolescence, this could lead to:

• Greater self-compassion

• Greater support for mothers and families

• Greater health outcomes for babies and parents

• A more enjoyable experience of motherhood

This is a great TEDtalk explaining how and why an understanding of matrescence is beneficial to mothers, parents, educators, and society as a whole. The natural (and sometimes unsteady) process of transition to motherhood is often silenced by shame or misdiagnosed as postpartum depression. In this quick, informative talk, reproductive psychiatrist Alexandra Sacks breaks down the emotional tug-of-war of becoming a new mother -- and shares a term that could help describe it: matrescence.

How would your experience of matrescence have changed, had you known to expect and understand more of the changes you faced?