Why this word is great
MATRESCENCE — [Noun] The physical, psychological, and social process of becoming and adapting to the role of a mother. From the Latin mātrēscēns, present participle of mātrēscō ("to become a mother"), from māter ("mother") and the inchoative suffix -ēscō ("to begin to, to become"). Unlike "motherhood," which denotes a settled state, or "postpartum," which implies a bounded, medical aftermath, matrescence names the ongoing, metamorphic passage itself. It is the salt-damp warmth of a sleeping newborn fitted perfectly into the hollow of your throat, the seismic re-mapping of neural pathways in the wakeful dark of a 3 a.m. feeding, and the profound recalibration of every relationship to a new, gravitational center—a chrysalis state where the woman is not gone, but her finished form is yet to be seen.