Campaign Aims to Add 'Matrescence' to Dictionary

- The term "matrescence" was coined in 1973 by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael, who also popularized the word "doula" to describe a non-medical person who assists a woman during and after childbirth. - Raphael, a student of Margaret Mead, introduced "matrescence" to frame motherhood as a significant rite of passage involving changes to a woman's identity, emotional state, and social status, not just a biological event. - The concept was revived and expanded by Dr. Aurélie Athan, a clinical psychologist and professor at Columbia University, who frames it as a developmental phase comparable to adolescence, encompassing biological, psychological, social, and spiritual changes. - For a new word to be added to a major dictionary like the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster, lexicographers require evidence of widespread, sustained use across various publications and contexts. - The campaign's co-sponsors have previously collaborated on initiatives addressing maternal mental health and loneliness, highlighting survey findings that 67% of mothers had never heard the term "matrescence" and 62% experience a loss of identity. - The effort to add "matrescence" to the dictionary is part of a larger cultural trend of giving language to and validating the complex, often unspoken, aspects of the transition to motherhood.