Matrescence Is Having a Global Moment: Here’s what you need to know
If you’ve opened Instagram, LinkedIn, or even The New York Times lately… you’ve probably seen it.
Matrescence.
A word that, for 50 years, has not been part of public vocabulary.
Recently, the Peanut app took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, calling for the word matrescence to be formally recognised in major dictionaries. And for many mothers, this is the first time they’ve ever heard it.
For those of us who’ve been working in this field for years, it’s time to celebrate!
And remember matrescence has a history.
This Word Has a History
Matrescence was first introduced in the 1970s by anthropologist Dana Raphael. She used it to describe the transition into motherhood, a developmental process as significant as adolescence.
Decades later, psychologist Dr. Aurélie Athan expanded and re-established the framework, grounding it in developmental psychology and maternal mental health research.
More recently, Dr. Alexandra Sacks helped bring the term into wider awareness through her 2018 TED Talk, reframing postpartum struggle as part of a normative developmental transition rather than immediate pathology.
Alongside them, maternal scholars and activists such as Dr Aurelie Athan, Allie Davis, Dr. Sarah McKay, Dr. Sophie Brock, Chelsea Robinson, Amy Taylor-Kabaz, Nikki Machon, Jessie Harold, Zoe Blaskey, Dr Oscar Serrallach and Lucy Jones have deepened the sociological, biological, narrative and psychological understanding of motherhood and matrescence and brought it into every day conversations.
Matrescence is not one voice. It is an interdisciplinary body of work.
Anthropology. Psychology. Neuroscience. Sociology. Clinical practice.
What we are seeing right now is not the birth of matrescence but it’s visibility. And visibility matters.
Why Visibility Is Powerful
For mothers encountering matrescence for the first time, something shifts. There’s relief. “Oh. It’s not just me.”
Understanding matrescence helps explain:
— The identity shifts
— The hormonal and neurological changes
— The emotional ambivalence
— The grief for your old self and the future which didn’t match your expectation
— The reorganisation of relationships
— The mental load and invisible labour
It gives language to what so many women have been experiencing silently. And language changes things.
It can help shift from pathologising a normal development transition to acknowledging and supporting this transition.
When a developmental framework becomes mainstream, it can influence:
screening practices
professional training
workplace policy
funding conversations
public understanding
That’s not small. That’s cultural. And a cultural movement is what we need to better support mothers through matrescence and motherhood.
We are celebrating this moment. And we are also aware of the caution alongside widespread visibility.
Both things can be true at once. (Just like maternal ambivilance).
Visibility with Education and Lineage Matters
History shows us that when something goes viral, it can go two ways.
Think about self-care. Originally grounded in health activism and psychological survival strategies, it gradually became commercialised.
The word remained but the depth has been diluted. Self-care is not the answer to overwhelm, yet well-meaning supports often mistake self-care as the answer to parenting in an environment that isn’t conducive to parental and infant wellbeing. Self-care has then turned into an individuals problem if mothers are failing that’s because they don’t make time for themselves and this couldn’t be further from the truth. Don’t get me wrong having some alone time is helpful, but it only helps for so long, when mothers are parenting straight back in the unsupported environment they took a break from.
One of my favourite podcast episodes, on this topic, you’ll find here.
We don’t want that for matrescence.
Matrescence is actually a really complex developmental process, that impacts all domains of a mothers life.
When a concept is grounded in research and clinical application:
• It shapes how professionals are trained
• It informs therapeutic interventions
• It strengthens advocacy
• It ensures safe and accurate support
If matrescence becomes widely used without understanding its foundations, we risk oversimplification.
And mothers deserve better than that.
Along with visibility we need to share lineage, because lineage protects integrity.
We need to acknowledge matrescence as more than a trending term. You can learn more about it from reading research articles written by Dr Aurelie Athan here.
At Matrescence NZ, our entire education pathway from antenatal workshops to practitioner certification is built on preserving and translating this research into practical, accessible support. Our models draw from the developmental frameworks, scholarly research, and are shaped by years of clinical engagement.
But this isn’t about us, it’s about all of us.
Our Gratitude in This Moment
We are deeply grateful.
Grateful to Peanut and Tommee Tippee for amplifying the word.
Grateful to scholars who persisted for decades before hashtags existed.
Grateful to mothers who named their experiences in therapy rooms and postpartum circles long before the media caught up.
This moment didn’t happen overnight, it’s the result of more than fifty years of scholarship, advocacy and clinical work.
And we honour that.
If you are a professional sharing matrescence right now, thank you. And. Please read beyond Instagram captions. Engage the research. Understand the developmental framework. Honour the scholars.
This is bigger than a dictionary entry.
It’s cultural change. And we are celebrating! And we are watching carefully.
We are committed, as always, to anchoring this work in evolving research, integrity and lived maternal experiences.
We are so grateful this day has come and look forward to watching the development and understanding of matrescence unfold.
Christina and Sam
Matrescence NZ Directors
