Why Matrescence?
When I began my professional journey into nutrition and wellness, I knew, from the onset, that I wanted to focus on women, specifically on mothers and babies. To me, caring for little ones was an obvious and natural extension of caring for moms. As a mother myself, I knew that I couldn’t possibly be at my best or worry about devoting time and effort to my own well-being, if my children weren’t safe, happy, and healthy. In working with other moms, I’ve found this to ring true for nearly all of them. Whether we start out focusing on their own health, or I begin working with them in order to care for their little one, both mom and baby are brought up and deeply entwined in our work.
I found myself struggling to accurately articulate what it is I do and who I aim to serve. In my head, it makes so much sense. But I’ve found that so much of what was probably once taught and supported by one’s village of other women and mothers, is now often foreign to modern day women in our society. As a young woman, I thought painful periods were just part of being a woman. I watched friends go on birth control as a means to “fix” their periods and then from birth control to clomid, or some other “hormone helper” to get pregnant. After my first baby, I struggled with where to turn for breastfeeding help, having actually never really seen a woman breastfeed in person. I remember being so engorged I could barely move my arms and crying because I wasn’t sure if I should call my midwife or the pediatrician. Now that the baby was out of my body, who was supposed to take care of me? And after a traumatic birth ending in a c- section with my son – my firstborn – followed by the hell that was our newborn period where he cried day in and day out, no matter what we did, to say that the transition to motherhood was a joyous one couldn’t be further from the truth.
Along each step of my journey as a woman, as a mother, it became more and more glaringly obvious to me that there was such a massive gap in good care. That women were suffering, often unknowingly, during nearly every step of their path, especially the path to becoming a mother. From painful periods, PCOS, fertility issues, miscarriages, pregnancy complications, postpartum depression/anxiety, to picky eaters, poor growing babies, peeing when coughing, or painful sex, women just seemed to grin and bear it, occasionally tentatively seeking help, but often being brushed off or told it was “normal”. Now, as a mother to three earth-side babies and 3 angels, and a functional practitioner serving so many women and children, I’m recognizing more and more how not ok this is. How unsupported and lonely motherhood often is. And how nourishing our bodies, our souls, our families has become a lost art.
Enter Matrescence Nutrition.
As I worked to find a name for my practice, for what I stand for and hope to achieve, the word “matrescence” entered my orbit, almost in a serendipitous way. It was like everything I tried to describe about my passion for my clients and my frustrations and hopes for motherhood was suddenly encapsulated in this one, elegant word. Matrescence is the physiological, psychological, spiritual, emotional transition of becoming a mother. For me, that means from growing into a young woman and beginning to menstruate, the body preparing to one day carry a new little human if desired, to working to conceive and then have a healthy pregnancy, all the way through postpartum and well beyond. Matrescence is the both/and of womanhood, of motherhood. Of being both a woman and also a mother. Of being both exhausted, frustrated, scared, and overjoyed, infatuated, strong. It is both starting to feel like “I got this!”, and then “oh no I don’t” as a new phase, stage, or challenge of motherhood presents itself. Just as the only thing that seems to be constant in life is change, matrescence captures that ever-evolving transitioning nature of motherhood. From conceiving and realizing you are growing a new human, to birth when that human is now out in the world and so dependent on you, to first steps and independence, and one day perhaps, becoming a mother to a mother.
Matrescence Nutrition recognizes every transition. And my goal is to provide you with support and strength during every uncertainty and victory. Motherhood is hard enough; I’m here to be a part of your village so none of us has to do it alone.
#mothernotmartyr #tonourishthebabynourishthemother #commondoesntmeannormal