CBeebies Parenting - Download – What is Matrescence? How motherhood can change your brain and identity with Zoe Blaskey and Smitha Mundasad
Matrescence is the physical, psychological and emotional changes you go through after the birth of your child, but despite being coined over 50 years ago, it is a word many still don’t understand.
In this episode, Katie Thistleton and Guvna B explore how pregnancy and early parenthood can reshape the brain, alter priorities and change identity. They discuss why moving beyond the phrase ‘baby brain’ helps parents feel understood, and how recognising a real transition can change expectations at home, in friendships and at work.
BBC Health and Science Reporter Smitha Mundasad shares insight from the Be Mother project in Spain, which scanned the brains of 127 pregnant volunteers and found neurological changes in mothers-to-be. Smitha explored this in her documentary Baby Brain: What’s really going on?
Author, podcast host and Motherkind founder Zoe Blaskey shares her own experience of matrescence and the work she's been doing to raise awareness of these changes with other parents and businesses. She also sets matrescence as a life stage alongside adolescence, to frame it as a normal developmental process.
There is information and support for pregnancy related issues on the BBC Action Line website www.bbc.co.uk/actionline.
For more ideas and resources, visit the CBeebies Parenting website.
Get in touch: parentingdownload@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp 0800 022 4808
Published on Saturday, 21st March 2026.
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