May 07, 2026

The Complexity of Motherhood

49 minutes

How do you sum up the experience of motherhood, and all of the changes it brings, both big and small? It’s a transformation that affects everything — hormones, body image, relationships, feelings, money, career — even the answers to larger, existential questions like, “Who am I in this world, and what is my role?”

On this episode, we explore the impact of motherhood. We talk with a psychologist about “matrescence” — a term used to describe the multi-faceted transformation ushered in by motherhood — and why it comes as a surprise to so many mothers. We find out how motherhood rewires the brain, and how those changes affect the way we think and behave. And we hear about a new play that challenges ideas about motherhood and women’s health.

After interviewing women about their experiences of motherhood, Aurélie Athan came across a term that seemed to describe all of the changes: Matrescence. Athan is a reproductive psychologist and a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City.

When health-and-science journalist Chelsea Conaboy first became a mother, she was surprised to find that the maternal instinct she’d heard about for years wasn’t kicking in. That led Conaboy to investigate some of our long-held beliefs about motherhood — and how they influence our ways of thinking and behaving. Her book is called “Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood.”

We talk with writer and actor Andrea Peterson about her new play, (plan c) — a dark comedy that explores the gray areas of motherhood, from medical issues to fears about maintaining independence to relationship troubles. The world premiere of (plan c) with Pygmalion Productions is running now at the Rose Wagner Black Box Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah.

When Katie Pratt was 3 years old, she was diagnosed with a Chiari malformation, a rare brain condition in which the cerebellum bulges through an opening in the skull into the spinal canal. Katie’s mom, Wendy, had a hunch about what the solution would be — but it wasn’t until doctors opened up Katie’s skull that they discovered she was right. Katie interviews her mom about the experience, and her incredible flash of mother’s intuition.

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