Matrescence Quotes by Lucy Jones

Women have internalized our own devaluation. No wonder many women with the privilege of making the choice are choosing not to have children. Child-rearing is arguably the most difficult path possible, a hero’s journey that leads us on harrowing adventures but for which we receive almost no credit.

I thought early motherhood would be gentle, beatific, pacific, tranquil: bathed in a soft light. But actually it was hard-core, edgy, gnarly. It wasn’t pale pink; it was brown of shit and red of blood. And it was the most political experience of my life, rife with conflict, domination, drama, struggle and power.

Women go into childbirth unaware of physical realities of delivering a placenta, of recovering from a C-section, and of the possible physical implications of birth. We hear almost nothing about the emotional landscape of the postpartum experience: the alienation from your own body, the massive identity shift.

me. I can almost remember what my labour screams are like and I am certain they would traumatize all my children. They would make the house sound as if I was either being murdered or mustering my powers to horribly murder someone else.