Mothershift: The Book
Becoming a mother changes not just the size of your jeans and what you do on a Saturday night: it changes who you are. Motherhood is a total identity shift; a rite of passage that takes at least two to three years for most women to traverse, not six weeks or three months, like we’ve been led to believe.
In times and places long ago and far away, women were ushered through the transition to motherhood, or matrescence, with the the support of a community of other women, with ritual and ceremony to celebrate their shifting lives. Today, mothers are encouraged to “bounce back” and told “not to lose themselves in motherhood,” with everything from social media to social policy denying them the opportunity to experience the power and potential of this tender time in their lives.
As a result, mothers today are in crisis, and rates of postpartum mood disorders are skyrocketing.
Mothershift: Reclaiming Motherhood as a Rite of Passage is the support these new mothers have been longing for, full of reassurance that they are not broken, they’re becoming.
Readers who pick up Mothershift are smart, savvy women who have had it “all together” in their lives, only to fall apart in new motherhood. They are feeling disorientation, grief, and isolation – they thought there would be more tummy time or playdates or something: surely not this. Mothershift reminds these mamas that they are not alone, and gives them a map to help them traverse the sometimes-rocky terrain of new motherhood.
“I haven’t found any other places that offer this level and depth of conversation on the transition into motherhood “
Mothershift is a completed manuscript looking for the right home with a traditional publishing company.
Until then, I am growing the conversation about the transition into motherhood and a community of support for this book over on the Mothershift Book online group. If you are a mama in the first five years of motherhood, please join us there!