Sahar’s Reviews > Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood > Status Update

This newfound ‘traditional’ code of intensive motherhood clashed with the capitalistic culture I had been instructed in: to be, first and foremost, a worker, an earner and a consumer.

Motherhood is an occupation in all senses of the word. Those who have occupied me are now living both outside and inside me. By which I mean, sometimes there is no membrane between us, despite appearances. They have annexed my consciousness

It is interesting that both the Qur’an and the Bible contain a much stronger sense of the physical and psychological experience of matrescence than our dominant secular discourse. As the scholar Irene Oh shows, the Qur’an tells Muslims to revere their mothers because of the ‘hardship’ they go through to give birth and wean children.

‘Just as children are absolutely dependent on their parents for sustenance, so … are parents, especially their mothers, dependent on a greater society for economic provision. If a community values its children it must cherish their parents.’

In both depression and pregnancy, for example, there is an increase in cytokines, the inflammatory signalling markers in cells. Other, similar changes are seen in serotonergic pathways, which are involved in mood and mood disorders.

“s the problem the individual woman who is pathologized for having ‘PND’, in its diminutive and popular short-hand, or is the problem a society which utterly fails to support women in this major life transition?”

In the United States, the military was still using sleep deprivation in 2004, although detainees were supposed to be given ‘four hours of continuous sleep every 24 hours’. This is more than many mothers will regularly get in the first year of looking after a new baby

In England, it is easier to travel with a bike than with a baby. One train company has a dedicated space for four bikes, or two tandems, that cyclists can book in advance. Tandems have more rights on the trains than young humans. New mothers are often found sitting on the filthy floors with their infants

Millennial caregivers, those born between 1981 and 1996, experience increased isolation and loneliness compared with previous generations, with other stresses including financial strain and lower rates of home ownership.

Women felt pressure to be the primary caregiver and to be ‘perfect’, but they also felt dependent on others. ‘I just wanted to be looked after,’ one said.