Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood

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Her first book, Foxes Unearthed, was celebrated for its 'brave, bold and honest' (Chris Packham) account of our relationship with the fox, winning the Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award 2015. I’m not sure whether I would have wanted to read this before I had my daughter but I’m glad to have read this now. Reassuringly, it talks about the changes in the brain post-birth, the foetal cell transfer and how foetal cells can be found at the site of the c-section scar/breast tumours and in most organs, and experience of the pressure to have a ‘natural’ birth/breastfeed and where that comes from. Lucy Jones has raised so many issues, concerns, thoughts - which I had when I was early into Matrescence and thought maybe I was crazy. Jones's lyrical, compassionate exploration of the ever-shifting boundaries of selfhood that evolved within our interconnected biosphere, confronts today's societal demands for individual autonomy, culminating in a passionate and powerful maternal roar for change.

BUt moving beyond this close personal group, you are bombarded with sights and sounds and advices on mothers whose bodies bounced back, mothers who are climbing the corporate ladder AND mothering, mothers who are excelling at work and also helping their school going kids excel. I think had I read this whilst pregnant it would have made me feel rather fearful of early motherhood, whereas I think if you do have a fantastic support network around you, you are able to focus on the more joyous elements of mothering. Indeed, the chapter on the maternal brain is especially fascinating and, more importantly, validating for those of us who feel society’s minimising of matrescence flies in the face of our experience of it. It talks about the rawness of emotions that being a mother brings, the infinite joy and the helplessness, the initial isolation and the power of healing a community brings, the reshaping of a mother's brain (literally) and the way of looking at life expands and contracts at the same time. I appreciated the laser focus on her own physical and emotional development, but the statistical and theoretical context gives a sense of the universal.Jones sheds light on the trauma faced by new mothers, whilst describing the failings of Western Society when it comes to supporting mothers throughout their journey. Motherhood has immense physical and emotional ramifications, and it is appalling that it does not get discussed as much as it should be. What I found instead was a boundary-pushing book that is altogether tricksier, more complex and creative, transcending even the “part-memoir, part-critical analysis” genre that has become such a commonplace format for female authors in recent years. She is great, too, on the work of motherhood: a passage in which she details the subtle but significant labours of the morning routine feels almost modernist. Jones understands women wanting “to feel their bodies are powerful rather than degenerate, for facing danger and risk head-on”, but this won’t stop her from reminding us how nature is not always kind.

To have journeyed , and still be journeying, through this wild, raw, many coloured land of such unknowns, and to share that journey-the pain and the joy; the grief and love; the anxiety and the hope - in this way is nothing short of grace.Generally it seems like the author was, prior to and during her matrescence, securely ensconced in the sort of “feminism” that expects women to desire nothing more (or less or different) than the peak of capitalist achievement, and then those women turn 30 and realise a kid would be nice too, and expect that they can slot that in like taking up knitting. I feel like I’ve finally been seen in this indescribable journey of what I now understand to be ‘Matrescence’. It’s a transition period, like adolescence, that involves radical physical and mental changes and has lasting effects.