--- product_id: 570793438 title: "Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood" brand: "lucy jones" price: "21124CFA" currency: XOF in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sn/products/570793438-matrescence-on-the-metamorphosis-of-pregnancy-childbirth-and-motherhood store_origin: SN region: Senegal --- # 2024 Women's Prize Longlist Top-ranked in Biology & Pregnancy Groundbreaking neuroscience insights Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood **Brand:** lucy jones **Price:** 21124CFA **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🌟 Unlock the untold science and soul of motherhood — don’t miss the book redefining maternal identity! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood by lucy jones - **How much does it cost?** 21124CFA with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sn](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/570793438-matrescence-on-the-metamorphosis-of-pregnancy-childbirth-and-motherhood) ## Best For - lucy jones enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted lucy jones brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Award-Winning Insight:** Longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, recognized by top literary critics. - • **Cultural Game-Changer:** Challenges patriarchal norms and sparks urgent conversations on maternal mental health and identity. - • **Top-Ranked Bestseller:** Ranks #2 in Biology and #3 in Pregnancy & Childbirth categories with stellar 4.6-star reviews. - • **Empowering & Relatable:** Raw, honest narratives that validate and embolden every mother’s unique journey. - • **Science Meets Motherhood:** Integrates cutting-edge neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and sociology to decode motherhood’s metamorphosis. ## Overview Matrescence by Lucy Jones is a critically acclaimed, bestselling exploration of the profound physical, psychological, and social transformations during pregnancy and early motherhood. Combining neuroscience, biology, and feminist perspectives, it exposes the overlooked realities and challenges faced by mothers today, offering a fresh, empowering narrative that has earned top rankings and prestigious literary recognition. ## Description *A New Yorker, 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, Spectator A radical new examination of the transition into motherhood and how it affects the mind, brain and body During 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 profound, wild and enduring than we have been led to believe. She reveals the dangerous consequences of our neglect of the maternal experience and interrogates the patriarchal and capitalist systems that have created the untenable situation mothers face today. Here is an urgent examination of the modern institution of motherhood, which seeks to unshackle all parents from oppressive social norms. As it deepens our understanding of matrescence, it raises vital questions about motherhood and femininity; interdependence and individual identity; as well as about our relationships with each other and the living world. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Dimensions | 12.8 x 1.7 x 19.8 cm | | Edition | 1st | | Isbn 10 | 1802061304 | | Isbn 13 | 978-1802061307 | | Item Weight | 238 g | | Language | English | | Print Length | 320 pages | | Publication Date | 6 Jun. 2024 | | Publisher | Penguin | ## Images ![Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ftsoVTS4L.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Finally, someone has said it *by on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 19 December 2024* Matrescence is a wonderful book that examines how modern Western society’s approach to childbirth and motherhood is inherently flawed, particularly in the UK. Lucy Jones says ‘I thought mothering would just be changing nappies and cuddling a baby. Instead, it took me to the edge of what it means to be human.’I scribbled all over this book, highlighting so many sentences and paragraphs that articulated my feelings like nobody ever has before. The review snippets on the back cover include ‘comes as close as it’s possible to describing this indescribable moment in a woman’s life’, and ‘Finally, someone has properly expressed what the process of becoming a mother does to women: their sense of self and their brains. We all owe her a debt because it wasn’t just in our heads’. Oh my God I wanted to hug these reviewers as well as the author.Lucy highlights how the UK’s approach to birth and early motherhood is severely lacking compared to other European countries, which shocked me. I thought it was the same everywhere, and I’d heard that we actually get quite a good deal when it comes to maternity leave, so I never realised that giving birth in the UK puts you somewhat at a disadvantage. She says: ‘Why are we sending a high-risk group off to spend an unknown period of time home alone, where they must look after vulnerable infants and recover from the trauma of giving birth, while burdened with loneliness, lack of sleep, and a shedload of impossible cultural expectations, including the imperative to enjoy every minute of it?’There is also much examination of how women's brains are forever altered by having children, at a cellular level. I'll never think of the phrase 'baby brain' in the same way again. It's not just our bodies that are put through the wringer; there are so many hidden changes, and it's about time they were acknowledged.I am very passionate about maternal mental health and this book is so important. It's invaluable for anyone who has suffered with the mental challenges of motherhood in any way, no matter how big or small, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Perhaps we might all become just a little more compassionate after reading Matrescence. *by on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 30 July 2023* I devoured this book over the course of 2 weeks after my husband showed me an article he thought I’d be interested in that mentioned it. He knows me well 😁Never before has my actual experience of early motherhood been articulated with such clarity and honesty. I believe that many moms will feel seen and heard in their motherhood journey in a way that previously has only been ‘allowed’ to be expressed using humor. It seems to be a new concept for the raw reality of motherhood to be expressed as a serious topic.‘Matrescence’ is a little like the TV show Motherland, meets David Attenborough, meets Germaine Greer. The author weaves together her own raw experience as a mother, with her early immersion in feminist education and her knowledge as a science and nature writer (resulting in the reader contemplating their motherhood journey alongside that of a mother spider who is consumed by her spiderlings days after they hatch…and other such wonders in nature).The result is a wonderful story of one woman’s brutally truthful experience of matrescence, interspersed with examples of metamorphosis and matrescence from other species, as if to put the human experience of motherhood into a much bigger context, whilst also managing to deliver a summary history of motherhood paradigms and ideologies throughout the ages. In this, the author has accomplished quite a feat.All of this is delivered unapologetically, with a throbbing undercurrent of an earnest feminist perspective. A perspective that acknowledges both the ‘emancipation’ of women from the home by liberal feminists of the 70’s and 80’s, and the failures of subsequent feminist activity to address the sociological and biological realities of motherhood in the decades that followed, which have contributed in part to the ‘more punishing’ institution of motherhood’ that women entering matrescence in the early 21st century have faced.It is illuminating. It is affirming. It is moving. Her anecdotes from early motherhood, stirred emotions in me because of the way they touched nerves that I didn’t know were still exposed. The pinball between abject panic and relief that is caring for a toddler. The desperation and joy. The powerlessness and the fulfillment.I could go on and on about this book but I really just think you should read it. New and aspiring moms should read it to supplement their NCT classes and round out their expectations of the next few years. All men should read it to give them an understanding of what their wives, mothers, sisters, co-workers, the woman serving him in a shop, are going through or have gone through, and the part they can play on a practical level to redress some of the societal imbalances that have crept into being. I think we might all become just a little more compassionate after reading it.If you have been a mom with children of any age, you will find something here that gives you some ‘aha’ moments…whether that’s learning how the institution of motherhood has been manipulated to suit altering political agendas, or learning how neuroscience is now beginning to explain why a Motherhood Identity crisis actually occurs, or understanding the best way to support a mum with young children in 2023, whose reality is likely to be very different from our own experience of matrescence, there is something here for every one.The author touches on the impact of matrescence on identity throughout the book and towards the end, sums up, with seeming resignation, that after the birth of her 2nd child, about 2 years after her first, “any delusion of self-reliance and independence were truly shattered.”And it is from this shattering that we have the opportunity to reconstruct our identity, and emerge from matrescence with greater resilience, more self-compassion and increased confidence to define our own motherhood journey rather than drop into the slip stream of the prevailing ideology of the day.Lucy, thank you. You have done us all a great service and I think the ripples of this book will contribute to empowering individual women to take the reins of their own matrescence and direct it back to their center.Perhaps we mother best when we free ourselves from all the models, ideologies, theories and philosophies of ‘experts', who often have their own agenda behind what we ‘should’ be doing as mothers. Perhaps the greatest gift of matrescence, the process, is the opportunity to re-construct ourselves on our own terms. ‘Matrescence’ the book will embolden you to do so. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thoughtful and enlightening *by on Reviewed in the United Kingdom 11 July 2023* This is , for me, quite a difficult read- hard to get into as some of the devices used by the author to illustrate her ideas are a bit odd and not helpful. However as a truthful exploration of motherhood, how it affects you and the lasting effects experienced, it is a powerful testimony. Women need a bit more of this empowering truth as do the rest of society. That includes government. ## Frequently Bought Together - Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood - The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did): The million-copy selling parenting book from the Sunday Times bestselling psychotherapist - Motherkind: Become the happiest, most confident mum with the new Sunday Times best-selling book from host of the hit podcast --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sn/products/570793438-matrescence-on-the-metamorphosis-of-pregnancy-childbirth-and-motherhood](https://www.desertcart.sn/products/570793438-matrescence-on-the-metamorphosis-of-pregnancy-childbirth-and-motherhood) --- *Product available on Desertcart Senegal* *Store origin: SN* *Last updated: 2026-09-27*