Part of this work is bringing academic insights from maternal studies into public spaces—expanding awareness of matrescence, honoring Dana Raphael, and amplifying the contributions of other maternal scholars. Through collaboration with journalists, authors, podcast hosts, filmmakers, and others, this scholarship is translated into accessible language that resonates widely, sparking dialogue and, ideally, collective change.
Public Scholarship
DOCUMENTARIES
SYNOPSIS: Butterfly in a Blizzard shares a deeply personal look into professional snowboarder Kimmy Fasani’s extraordinary journey into motherhood and what this new phase of life reveals about her past. Fasani and her family opened all doors to capture her metamorphosis from globe-trotting winter sports icon to mom, while exploring matrescence, a newly coined term that encompasses a woman’s transition into motherhood. Throughout the film, the blizzards hit again and again, coming in waves of identity shifts, childhood trauma, relationship struggles and a cancer diagnosis. Through raw and intimate footage captured over five years and supported by leading expert voices in maternal health, Fasani fights through life’s storms while maintaining her place in a sport she loves and evolving to become the mother she strives to be. (Release date: March, 2025) https://www.butterflyinablizzard.com/
Matrescence in the Media
It’s taken a village to bring matrescence into mainstream consciousness. Appreciation goes to the journalists, writers, researchers, filmmakers, and creators who did their homework and took the time to understand the origins and lineage of scholarship around the concept, engaging it thoughtfully and carrying it forward with care and collaboration.
More than a feel-good movement, a passing trend, or something to be bought and sold, matrescence is meant to change things for good and for all—how mothers are understood and supported, and how the policies and science shaping their lives are defined and developed.
Interested in featuring or discussing matrescence within your area of expertise? Join the growing global conversation.
Dialogues like these help bring the concept into wider public awareness—across diverse contexts and different countries. Here’s an example of the how this education can reach new audiences with clear facilitation, this time in… Ireland!
This short animation travels on a different plane—the existential one, in the spirit of William James. What makes a mother? Images can bring recognition to an experience many feel, but few can name. It asks: A new mother is in radical transformation. But does anybody see her? “In my loud and invisible creation, I found that I was Created.”
Featured In
Book Features
Full Media Coverage
Podcast Interviews
NPR LifeKit Profile
Becoming a mother is a huge, complicated life transition that can rock every fiber of a person's being