What is matricentric care?

Have you heard of the word matricentric?

Maybe not. That’s ok, it’s a bit of a mouthful.

I’m hoping you’ve heard the term mother-centric though, because it’s super important - Well, I think it is anyway!

So what exactly is it?

The Free Dictionary defines matricentric as “centering around the mother or mothers”.

More specifically, in her 2016 book Matricentric Feminism: Theory, Activism and Practice, Professor Andrea O’Reilly says it “begins with the mother and takes seriously the work of mothers”. And I don’t think I could love this definition more.

Mother-centric care therefore involves care from health and support providers who value the health, decisions, and needs of the mother.

Contrary to what some might have us believe, mother-centric does NOT mean we don’t value what’s best for our child/children.

To me, it simply means we aren’t putting the mother last.

What does mother-centric care actually look like?

Mother-centric care can look like:

• supporting a mother’s birth choices

• supporting a mother’s feeding choices

• supporting a mother’s sleeping choices

• supporting a mother’s choices about day care or returning to the workforce

• providing advice and recommendations that enable a mother to prioritise her own health

• pretty much ANY care that does not shame the mother for making a decision that considers her own needs

Why is mother-centric care important?

When it comes to perinatal care, especially in the context of PNDA, mother-centric care is essential.

What’s best for the mother, for each mother, is different. Our care, health, and support providers therefore need to accommodate these differences.

Generic advice about doing what’s ‘best’ for the child can leave many mothers feeling ashamed, or like they’re failing. It can also force them to continuously subvert their own needs and health.

From personal experience, I know that non-mother-centric advice can be detrimental to both the physical health and mental health of a mother.

Mother-centric care matters because mothers matter, because our health matters, because we matter just as much as our children, because there is no single way to raise a child or to be a mother.

More importantly, mother-centric care matters because holding mothers hostage to the belief that we must mother in a specific way to be a ‘good mother’ and to ‘do what’s best for the children’ is poison to an authentic mother-baby dyad and to the mental health of all mothers.

Did you receive mother-centric care in pregnancy and postpartum? Follow Perinatal Stories Australia on Instagram to let us know!