MATRESCENCE

A New Statesman and Daily Mail BOOK OF THE YEAR Longlisted for the 2024 Women s Prize for Non Fiction The best book I ve ever read about motherhood Jude Rogers Observer I kept scribbling in the margins We need to know this stuff Joanna Pocock SpectatorA radical new examination of the transition into motherhood and how it affects the mind brain and bodyDuring pregnancy childbirth and early motherhood women undergo a far reaching physiological psychological and social 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 remains for the most part taboo In this ground breaking deeply personal investigation acclaimed 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 and ecology Jones shows how the changes in the maternal mind brain and body are far more profou