HEALTH AND WELLBEING.

The Changes of Caregiving. 

Mothering and caregiving in revealing our deepest vulnerabilities, our most intimate felt emotions and implicating our most intimate of organs is an acute reminder that life is felt rather than conceptualised.

Mothering is a microcosm, a concentrated reflection of the wider sphere of living that Maria Popova writes “touch(es) on some of the most elemental experiences of being human: change, vulnerability, reciprocity, resilience, belonging”.

In many ways mothering and caregiving are unique, and yet not. There is a duality inherent within it. We see this universality in the caregiving experience and how we are connected through the revelations of research that can affirm our inner instinctual knowledge. It has been shown that caregivers, such as fathers or partners, who have not conceived physically nor carried a child, bear similar mind transformations as do persons who have biologically conceived and carried a child. Caregiving connects us beyond the physical boundary of being one. -“Mother is a verb not a noun.”

When acknowledged in this light, the changes and the challenges of caregiving can be interpreted through a more inclusive and compassionate lens. It understands caregiving as a shared capacity, that transcends and unifies.

4. Nov. 2025.

References and Further Reading.

McKay, Dr Sarah 2018, Demystifying the female brain. Orion Spring, London

Popova Maria: Matrescence: The Cellular Science of the Unself.The Marginalian. Accessed online 1st Nov. https://www.themarginalian.org/2025/02/26/matrescence/

Image Kim Verdebo