The Motherhood Sessions: A Podcast About The Challenges And Vulnerability Of New Motherhood

Dr. Alexandra Sacks is a reproductive psychiatrist affiliated with the Women's Program at Columbia University. She's the woman who coined the term "matrescence"—the major hormonal and identity transition (not unlike adolescence) that takes place when a woman becomes a mother. (It's actually a pretty fascinating concept. If you want to hear her TED talk on matrescence, you can check it out here).

Earlier this month, Dr. Sacks debuted a new podcast on Gimlet media called The Motherhood Sessions. Imagine being a fly on the wall, while women unburden themselves to a trained professional about the rawest, most vulnerable aspects of their motherhood journeys. That's what this podcast is all about.

Dr. Sacks is careful to explain that these podcasts are by no means recorded therapy sessions: Instead, they are deeply intimate conversations about the often contradictory, often ambivalent emotions and experiences that women go through upon becoming mothers. 

So far, there have only been two episodes: In the first, Dr. Sacks speaks with a woman who, upon becoming a mother, realized she was in an abusive relationship, left, and now has to grapple with how to co-parent with an abusive ex. In the second, she talks to a woman who never wanted to be a mother, and now that she is, struggles with feelings of guilt for missing her previous, pre-baby life.

Dr. Sacks approaches both of these conversations with tremendous empathy and insight. Regardless of whether you are already a mother, thinking of becoming one, or are simply interested in understanding the human experience of motherhood, it's definitely worth a listen.

I know I'm already hooked.