Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood

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A revelatory account of the transition into motherhood and how it affects the mind, brain and body A New Statesman and Daily Mail Book of the Year During pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood, women undergo a far-reaching physiological and psychological metamorphosis. There is no other time in a human's life course that entails such dramatic change-other than adolescence. And yet this life-altering transition has been sorely neglected by science, medicine and philosophy. Its seismic effects go largely unrepresented across literature and the arts. Speaking about motherhood as anything other than a pastel-hued dream is virtually taboo. In this ground-breaking investigation, acclaimed science journalist and author Lucy Jones brings to light the emerging concept of 'matrescence'. Drawing on new research across various fields - neuroscience and evolutionary biology; psychoanalysis and existential therapy; sociology, economics, ecology and cultural history - Jones shows how the changes in the maternal mind, brain and body are far more profound, wild and enduring than we have been led to believe. She reveals the dangerous consequences of our neglect of the maternal experience - today, one in ten women develop a mental illness in the first year of new motherhood; a third of mothers with more than one child suffer from postnatal depression - and she explores the patriarchal and capitalist institutions that have created the untenable situation mothers face today. Here is an urgent examination of motherhood and mental health, which seeks to unshackle mothers from the weight of unrealistic medical, cultural and economic expectations. It is an unignorable rallying cry to deepen our understanding of matrescence, and to make the experience of pregnancy, birth and child-raising better for future parents.

Reviews

A thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother Myths are smashed from page one essential reading, roaring and ready to change conversations -- Jude Rogers * Observer *
I kept scribbling in the margins: 'We need to know this stuff!' ... wide-ranging in its scope, packed with statistics comes as close as its possible to describing this indescribable moment in a womans life -- Joanna Pocock * Spectator *
Reading this, I felt a jolt of recognition ... I wish someone could have handed me Matrescence -- Sophie McBain * New Statesman *
This deeply personal book takes on fairytale ideas about being a mother An exploration of motherhood the contrast between myth and reality and between individual and social expectations ... Jones writes beautifully and with searing honesty about the life-changing physical and emotional impact of having a child -- Rachel Sylvester * The Times *
She is a gifted writer A vital, hopeful book ... to read Matrescence is to emerge chastened and ready for change -- Marianne Levy * i News *
Beautiful... boundary-pushing Jones is a pioneer ... she skilfully elucidates the monumental shifts motherhood brings ... I found myself inwardly cheering -- Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett * Guardian *
It is difficult to put into words the importance of this book. I felt it in my heart. I carried it with me, I think I always will. Jones has written the book we desperately needed -- Daisy Johnson
Matrescence took me on a journey of reminescence through my own pregnancies and early years of motherhood, eliciting wry recognition, surprise at new evidence and insight, and gratitude for a work that really sees what it is to mother -- Clare Chambers
A beautiful contemplation of the extraordinary yet ordinary metamorphosis that adult humans undergo as they become mothers ... I was entranced ... Matrescence is a passionate and powerful maternal roar for change -- Gaia Vince
Hypnotic, fascinating and long overdue. I am so glad it exists. A gift of a book and told beautifully. -- Laura Dockrill
As a first-time mother, Matrescence is probably the most reassuring book I've ever read... Buy it for every parent you know -- and then maybe buy a copy to send to your local MP as well -- Holly Bourne * Daily Mail *Books of the Year* *
Matrescence is a wild and beautiful book, a blend of memoir, science, psychoanalytical thinking and nature writing with a poetic sensibility and a strong sense of political purpose * New Statesman *Best Books of the Summer* *
Matrescence is the book I've been waiting for. It feels like a gift. Radical, questioning and profound, it urges us to recognise and honour the many transformations of motherhood. With the deepest compassion for her fellow mothers, Lucy Jones shows us how contemporary society stacks the odds against them and calls us to imagine new ways of parenting which care for and support those at its heart -- Liz Berry
You'll marvel, wince and want to take to the streets after reading Lucy Jones' sweeping and courageous multidisciplinary survey of the motherlands. I wish we'd read it before we had our kid. (Mother) nature read in truth and awe -- Tom Mustill
I was challenged, comforted, educated and nourished by this book ... It is the single most powerful, life-changing, heartachingly healing thing I have been given ... The kind of book we must ensure every one of us reads -- Kerri n Dochartaigh
A beautiful, intelligent book that is as tender and moving as it is demanding and urgent. There is something insightful and original in the way Lucy Jones seamlessly combines the analytical with the emotional, and it is an absolutely essential new addition to the literature of mothering and parenthood -- Clover Stroud
This book should be a must-read for pretty much everyone. We don't talk about the hidden realities of the biological, social and psychological effects of matrescence nearly enough. Thank you, Lucy Jones, for changing that -- Dr Jodi Pawluski
Fascinating -- Henry Mance (Twitter)
Dazzling... Matrescence cements Jones' place as one of the most talented nonfiction writers we have. It really is *astonishingly* good -- Oli Franklin-Wallis (Twitter)
Matrescence is going to set mothers worlds alight. Finally, someone has properly expressed what the process of becoming a mother does to women: their sense of self and their brains. We all owe her a debt because it wasnt just in our heads -- Emma Barnett * Red *
Jones writes like a novelist, capturing wild swings of emotion, doubt, the adoration of a new baby, and (always) the tension between what she thinks is expected of her and the pressure of her own mixed-up feelings * Daily Mail *
Engaging and sensitive Matrescence is an important work -- Naomi Stadlen * JUNO Magazine *
A truly extraordinary book- radically eye-opening, beautiful and luminously written -- Fatima Bhutto (via X)
A probing meditation Seamlessly weaving personal recollections with broader social analysis Elevated by inventive formal flourishes and searching reflection, Matrescence will resonate with mothers of all stripes * Publishers Weekly *

Author Bio

Lucy Jones is a writer and journalist based in Hampshire, England. She previously worked at NME and the Daily Telegraph, and her writing on culture, science and nature has been published in GQ, BBC Wildlife, The Sunday Times, the Guardian and the New Statesman. She is the author of Foxes Unearthed, which won the Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award 2015; Losing Eden, which was long-listed for the Wainwright Prize and named a Times and Telegraph book of the year; and Matrescence, 'a thrilling examination of what it means to be a mother' (Observer), which has been longlisted for the inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction.