And not just because I am in matrescence but because I have a mother, I know many mothers, and I could have been a much better friend and supporter if I would have been taught this stuff 10 years ago. Moving from the early stages of her pregnancy to her eldest child’s first day at school, she describes how the mother’s brain literally changes shape’. I'm going to be interviewing Lucy in November, and I'm looking forward to finding out how she wrote such an incredible book.

Thank you to the author - a book unlike anything I’ve read before on motherhood, and one that many women will not only relate to, but will also benefit from reading. I do however wish there had been more focus on the difference support can make to this journey and having the support there. An exploration of the contrast between myth and reality and between individual and social expectations . We meet eels that endure five life stages and multiple habitats before breeding once and then dying, and black lace-weaver mother spiders who feed their living bodies to their infants.To have journeyed , and still be journeying, through this wild, raw, many coloured land of such unknowns, and to share that journey-the pain and the joy; the grief and love; the anxiety and the hope - in this way is nothing short of grace.

It importantly draws attention to the essential social change which is needed, as well as the bias and misinformed guidance mothers are given when they are at one of their most vulnerable stages of life. Feminism owes a great debt to the women who smell smoke, and societal assumptions about unmedicated birth, breastfeeding, and intensive mothering continue to harm women’s mental and physical health daily. But as the book went on I found I enjoyed reading about vampire bats and aurora borealis and spiders that eat their own mothers, and found her desire to place matrescence within the context of a wider ecology, and her emphasis on “the psychic and corporeal reality of our interdependence and interconnectedness with other species”, admirable. What I found instead was a boundary-pushing book that is altogether tricksier, more complex and creative, transcending even the “part-memoir, part-critical analysis” genre that has become such a commonplace format for female authors in recent years. Sure, there are a million books out there about how to take care of a child (and most of them are contradicting each other, or shift gears every couple of years), but very few about what it means to become a mother, to go through matrescence.Jones's lyrical, compassionate exploration of the ever-shifting boundaries of selfhood that evolved within our interconnected biosphere, confronts today's societal demands for individual autonomy, culminating in a passionate and powerful maternal roar for change.

I absolutely related to lots of the book, and really tried to take the first few chapters from an objective point of view because I did not have the same experiences when it came to child birth and breastfeeding, but I do completely understand that the emphasis was on the pressure that the ‘natural mother’ rhetoric puts on women. Lucy’s ability to put words to experiences that I’ve been unable to describe myself is both incredible and the greatest gift.A beautiful contemplation of the extraordinary yet ordinary metamorphosis that adult humans undergo as they become mothers. A slight tangent, I work in higher education and am watching so many young people struggle with their mental health. This shift of focus captivates Jones, a new mother at the start of the book, who has a daughter and two sons by its conclusion. It goes to the very foundational values of our society and how we perceive and value the vital work of raising the next generation.