Becoming a mother: Matrescence as spiritual formation (Motherhood as spiritual awakening)

For most women, becoming a mother is a disorienting and problematic rite of passage. During pregnancy, childbirth, and infant care, women undergo inte nse physical and psychic spiritual changes- changes that hold great spiritu al potential. Yet, religious traditions offer little insight or support for this potential. The author argues that women's experiences of becoming mot hers, when taken seriously, offer the larger culture new ways of thinking a bout divine reality. Drawing on her own and others' experience, she explore s the following themes: motherhood as spiritual awakening and breaking open ; union and embodiment through breastfeeding and infant care; "two-in-one-n ess;" survival love as an alternative to agape; ethical changes in early mo therhood. This essay is relevant to all parents(including adoptive parents) and those involved in parents' religious formation.