My Mission Defined
I’ve been thinking a lot about where to start in terms of helping to reach a wider cast of mothers. What do we need? How do I reach them? To answer those questions, I’m drawing on my own experience. Then and now. We know there is power in the shared experience.
So, what has the word matrescence meant for me? What do I know now that I wish I had known five or ten years ago when my children were born?
The answer is layered and deeply tangled, but here it goes.
Because matrescence is the transition to becoming and being a mother, it means that we are not expected to have it all together. It’s ok to need support right now, wherever you are.
Because of studying matrescence, I learned that the highest rates of postpartum depression are recorded in mothers of four year olds. Motherhood support needs to extend beyond the immediate postpartum stage.
Because of my matrescence training, I now understand the societal pressures and cultural messaging that encourage mothers to ‘bounce back’ to her pre-baby jeans, job and life. Anyone who has had a child knows that that’s not realistic. Life changes and that brings about both joy and grief. Motherhood support needs to account for these inevitabilities.
I want to help other mothers understand matrescence so they, too, can make sense of their experience no matter how many years into the journey they are. I didn’t realize I needed support until I started learning about matrescence; I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But now I want to shout it from the rooftops because it has profoundly shifted just about everything in me. By making sense of my experience from earlier parenting days, I was and continue to be able to:
Validate the experiences that often left me doubting myself and my abilities as a mother (and often still do!)
Grieve parts of my former life and former self
Embrace and celebrate how motherhood has shaped and changed me
Make space for who I am now, see what I’m capable of and step into my own power and purpose
I know it sounds too good to be true or over the top, but these words have been carefully selected after deep reflection. I am here to say that I’ve discovered my purpose, and it is to help other mothers with this same self discovery. I firmly believe that comes with understanding one word: matrescence.
