Hi, I'm Claire Yee. And today I'm going to be answering the question, what is matrescence?
You might have heard of this term before, you might not have heard of this term before. And either way, hopefully that this will give you a little bit more understanding about what this term is what the experience is like. And you'll be able to probably know somebody who was going through this experience of matriculants. Or maybe even you are yourself. So, matrescence, if we break down the word, it's got the word root word matre, which means mother, and escence, which means becoming, or a state of being.
So matrescence is all about Mother becoming, or the beingness of being a mother, how we are being is we're a mother. This is part of the reason why I love this word so much, because it speaks into this transformational developmental process that we experience when we become mothers.
So this term was first coined by Dr. Dana Rafael in the 70s. And she wanted to have a word for this transition, this process that we go through, that women go through when they become mothers, and she really was passionate about normalizing the experience of motherhood, and the change in identity that we go through as we become mothers, and also the range of emotions that come with being a mother. And Dr. Dana Rafael was a bit of a legend in her time, she also coined the term dollar, which is a term that we know pretty well now. Matrescence is starting to grow in its popularity, too.
There's some really amazing leaders in the field, Dr. Alexandra sacks, Dr. Aurelie Athan, and many others who are starting to share information about matrescence. And the beautiful thing about this word is it speaks into this holistic transformation that occurs when we decide to become mothers.
So it's not just about the physical, the physicality of becoming a mother, conceiving a baby birthing a baby feeding a baby, it's part that's part of it. But it's also the mindset shift, the identity shift, that starts to happen. As we are becoming mothers and continue to be mothers.
This matrescence journey will start when we start to think about becoming a mother, and it doesn't end because we are always then a mother. And so our thinking changes as as well, a lot of amazing science is being done into the brain changes that women experience when they are on this journey of motherhood and the brain changes are most significant in the early years.
But even studies look at the brains of woman, when they're in their later years of life, they've seen that they can tell if a woman has had children, and even not even birth her own children, but looked after children, by the changes that happen in her brain just by looking at the brain scans. It's incredible and so fascinating.
So what happens to our brain and our sense of identity is that we start to shift from the world being not just about 'me' anymore, but it comes it becomes about 'we' it becomes about us, and then our children, and almost all of the decisions that we make end up including our children in them, we never really think so much in that me perspective, we're always considering our children. And with every new child that comes along the matrescence journey deepens and expands.
Then as our children grow up, we continue to grow with them through all the different developmental stages that they go through throughout their lives. We grow and we shift and we change and we adapt, because we're always becoming a new version of ourselves as we are in relationship with our children who are also becoming new versions of their selves continually as well.
And so it's an incredible opportunity with the brain changes that happen very similar to the times of adolescence, the brain changes that we experience through that phase of our life. And the hormonal shifts that change. It's actually the biggest hormonal shift that will experience it now adult life and same with these brain changes as well.
It's a beautiful opportunity to start to let go of the things that are no longer serving us and really continue To realign with who we truly are. And I think it's a beautiful opportunity to really become the fullest version of who we truly are, as we're on this journey of motherhood, and we really start to learn that when we hold on to things that aren't serving us anymore, we get that instant feedback from our kids that that's not working.
And so it's this beautiful unfolding and opportunity to keep evolving and keep keep becoming who we truly are, and really blossom into ourselves as well through this beautiful relationship that we have with our children.
So I hope that this has helped you to start to become aware of matrescence maybe start to look at your own journey through a different lens, start to accept some of the experiences that you might be having this identity shift that you might be experiencing, and know that it's normal.
