What is Matrescence? Understanding the Identity Shift of Becoming a Mother

I was a year into motherhood when I came across the word.

I’d been searching for something that would explain what was happening, why I felt so far from myself, why becoming a mother had been the most ordinary thing in the world and the most disorientating thing I had ever lived through, both at once. I didn't have language for it. I just kept looking.

Then there it was. One word. Matrescence.