Matrescence

First coined by anthropologist Dana Raphael in the 1970s (though not researched deeply until much later), the term Matrescence was introduced to me when a friend recommended Lucy Jones’ incredible 2023 book of the same name. Since Matrescence isn’t part of mainstream medical vocabulary, many doctors aren’t familiar with it — yet it gives a name to the profound transformation women undergo when becoming mothers.

Motherhood changes you. Like adolescence, you don’t return to who you were before — it’s a gradual, unfolding process that touches every layer of your being: body, mind, hormones, and sense of self. Your world reorients completely around your new little one, whose arrival demands constant care and attention. That was certainly my experience. I know it’s different for everyone, but having a shared language for this monumental shift feels deeply validating and connective.

Yoga — particularly Yoni Shakti Yoga and Pregnancy Yoga (developed by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli) — has been an anchor throughout this transformation. These practices helped me witness and honour my changing body, acknowledge my evolving identity, and find moments of deep restoration when I was most exhausted and depleted. Yoga Nidra, in particular, offered a space to integrate the past versions of myself — to grieve and give thanks for the woman I once was, to welcome the woman I was becoming, and to marvel at the two incredible beings I had birthed into the world. It often feels as though my heart now exists outside my body, moving about in two small, independent forms.

Yoga also became something I could share with my children as they grew — from gentle postpartum practices with tiny babies gazing and giggling on my knees, to playful toddler sessions where they would leap over me, crawl under my downward dog “tunnel,” turn supported bridge into the “mummy slide,” ride on my back during cat-cow, and snuggle close with a blanket during relaxation.

This process is still unfolding for me. It is a great privilege to share yoga with pregnant women and mothers at all stages of this sacred journey — to witness, support, and empower them as they reconnect with the profound wisdom already within them, and as they, too, undergo this beautiful becoming.