Recent Exhibition

A 2017 study found 13-20% of new mothers experienced some form of depression during pregnancy through the first year. Another study found suicide the second most common cause of death in postpartum women. While the alarming statistics brought much needed attention to perinatal distress — the time just before and after birth — the research fails to address a range of cultural factors that play a major role in maternal mental health outcomes.

Despite their pervasiveness, common postpartum issues such as depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, schizoid withdrawal, PTSD, and others are still stigmatized. Distinguished psychoanalyst and educator, Dr. Joan Raphael-Leff, found postpartum mental health was intrinsically linked to the social and economical climate of the household, the bond between mother and child, the mother’s experience as a daughter, and preconceived notions of motherhood influenced by widespread cultural attitudes towards motherhood.  Given the breadth of the issue, the most common treatment method, the issuing of antidepressant medication, has become a band-aid for a much larger societal issue.

Dr. Alexandra Sacks, the reproductive psychiatrist behind the viral Ted Talk “A new way to think about the transition to motherhood,” is part of a small group of medical doctors and scholars trying to revive the term matrescence, the anthropological term for the transition into motherhood coined by Dr. Raphael-Leff in the 1970s. In her practice, Dr. Sacks found many of her patients seeking treatment for postpartum depression did not fit the criteria for clinical depression, but were exhibiting normal responses to extreme circumstances associated with the postpartum period such as sleep deprivation, birth injuries, social disruption, hormonal fluctuations, and other physiological changes. When these circumstances, common in even healthy, trauma-free birth and postpartum experiences are paired with increasing demands to return to our pre-baby bodies, minds, and careers with inadequate physical, emotional, and economical support, serious mental health issues can arise.

Fueling the unhealthy expectations of contemporary mothers are millions of light and airy, highly curated images of the attractive Instagram supermom, joyfully balancing the roles of mother, wife, and homemaker all the while maintaining a booming career or passion project. Despite disturbing rates of perinatal depression, the overwhelming majority of motherhood imagery on social media is void of the normal difficulties of matrescence, dominated instead by idealized images of unattainable motherhood experiences.

As Dr. Raphael-Leff noted in her 2010 model of healthy maternal ambivalence, idealized notions of motherhood have a negative impact on maternal mental health. Throughout the duration of this project, I have navigated my own matresence, experiencing first hand the pressure to live up to this ideal and the upheaval that often comes with reality. The goal of this project is to demonstrate the profound role motherhood imagery plays in our perception of matrescence. The work created will offer a new prototype for contemporary motherhood imagery that normalizes ambivalent experiences. As stories of honest motherhood begin to infiltrate our magazines, televisions, and social media feeds, the conversation around maternal mental health will grow and change, laying the groundwork for new ideas and policies that support women throughout the vital period of matresence.   

MFA Thesis Exhibition, "On Matrescence"
Words and photographs by Kim Lovvorn
Open April 15-19
Closing Reception: Thursday, April 18, 5-8 PM

The Art Gallery | University of South Alabama
501 North University Boulevard, VAB 540
Mobile, Alabama 36688