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The Conversation
The Conversation
Belinda Eslick, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Queensland

It’s hard to describe what it feels like to become a mum, but it has a name: matrescence

Dylan Nolte/Unsplash

“Completely life-changing”. “Nothing could have fully prepared me”. These are the sorts of phrases you often hear from women when they become a mother.

These descriptions can point to the complexity and depth of the experience. It can be joyous and stressful, exhausting and euphoric, profound and mundane. It’s unlike any other life transition, and – try as we might – hard to capture in words or short phrases.

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