Papillon Collective - Navigating Motherhood Transformation

When I started to dream of this motherhood community, I kept coming back to the transformation process of becoming a mother. For me, it was and is such a profound experience. I became a mother on March 24, 2019, but the new me transformed through a slow unraveling and re-raveling of the days, weeks, months to follow. It has been a journey and one that I am still defining and understanding.

Dr. Oscar Serrallach, a Postpartum wellness expert put it so perfectly:

“When a woman is in her cocoon phase (i.e. postpartum)–which can be weeks, months, or sometimes even years following the birth of her child–it needs to be recognized that she is in a liminal/suspended space, in which she is also something like mush. Her eventual transformation into a butterfly depends largely on full recovery on all levels of her being — physical, emotional and spiritual.”

After reading this quote, I felt so seen!

It has taken a physical, emotional and a spiritual journey to be who I am today.

Our society puts so much emphasis on the baby and the beautified image of becoming a mother, and I believe not enough focus and attention on the mother's wellbeing. I see a shift in the last three years since my first pregnancy. With more accessible, mainstream content speaking about the hardships of the 4th trimester, matrescence and normalizing the transition into postpartum and general parenting. It’s all a process and frankly, hard!

To visualize this process in a different way, I appreciated Heng Ou’s perspective from her great book, The First Forty days, The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother:

"As your role as mother, or mother again if you have other children, begins, you will quickly discover that the multifaceted nature of this challenge is endless. Though you have just expended a massive amount of energy, you must now source even more as you recover physically, orient yourself to a changed body and reconfigured way of being, and navigate the challenges of feeding and soothing a baby. This unique period of time is called the Gateway because it is the threshold between one world and another. The concept of a pause between chapters may seem strange or foreign, but look deeper - it is as natural and needed as the inhale before the exhale” (82).

Transformation, metamorphosis, the Gateway. Moving from one chapter to another. From one very well-known space to something completely unknown. Let the unraveling and curiosity of this new space take over, loosen that control of who you once were and be open to what is to come. I want to amplify this concept and discussion. And to put forth the real stories from mothers, provide tangible, supportive resources that can help one navigate this transformation. No matter what your experience may entail, and what journey you may be on, you are able to find the validation, respect and support needed to gracefully go through this period of life.

We are emerging into a beautiful, strong, resilient butterfly. Un papillon.