The life course perspective has provided a grounding framework for maternal and child health (MCH) research and practice. By emphasizing the cumulative impact of social, economic, and environmental influences across the life span, the framework has informed the development of effective interventions in MCH (Bazzano et al., 2025). Although much progress has been made, there remains an opportunity to more explicitly address the unique developmental needs of maternal health during the transition to motherhood. This commentary argues that the transformative period that birthing people experience during pregnancy and after giving birth, that is, the transition to motherhood or “matrescence” (Athan, 2024; 2025), should be integrated into the MCH life course perspective as a critical and sensitive period. We note that we use “women” throughout this paper, although we acknowledge that not everyone who gives birth identifies as a woman. This was done in recognition of the existing literature on motherhood and maternal outcomes that predominantly reflects experiences of those whose gender identity aligns with their sex.
Please click here to read the complete article.