From Matrescence to Flex Appeal: 11 Moments That Redefined Motherhood in 2024

As we wrap up 2024 and stumble, bleary-eyed into the start of a brand-new year (hopefully with a hot coffee in hand), it’s time to take a moment to reflect. And what a year it’s been for mums.

From headline-worthy, landmark moments to quiet shifts that only a mum would notice, it feels like motherhood in the UK will never quite be the same again.

We’ve reclaimed our rights in the workplace, redefined how we navigate the mental load at home, and faced challenges head-on—all while juggling our fair share of worries, laughs, and the occasional tear (from both babies and us).

Let’s rewind and relive the milestones, big and small, that made this a monumental year for mums.

You might not have even heard the word before 2024, but matrescence is now a fully fledged part of the motherhood conversation. We’re not too far off “How’s your matrescence going?” becoming a standard question for new mums.

If the term has passed you by, matrescence is essentially adolescence (the transitional stage of development when a child becomes an adult) but for motherhood—the process of becoming a parent. The word has been gaining traction both academically and culturally, partly thanks to Lucy Jones’ brilliant book Matrescence (named a New Yorker Best Book of 2024) and advocates like Zoe Blaskey, who has championed the topic on her Motherkind podcast this year.

The more mainstream the word becomes, the more mainstream the concept—and the understanding that when we become mothers, we undergo an enormous transformation. Our bodies, brains, emotions, and even our coordination (seriously, catching a ball feels different) are all rewired. It’s no wonder it takes time to ‘land’ in who and what we are on the other side.

No more downplaying the postpartum identity struggle. No more of that “motherhood doesn’t have to change you” BS. We’ve changed—but that’s OK. We’re still us, just a slightly new, evolved version.

Thanks to the Flexible Working Bill, which came into effect this April, flexible working is now a legal right in the UK. What does that mean? Employees can now request changes to their working hours, days and working location twice a year and they can do so from their very first day on the job. More important changes are on the way too, which will put the responsibility on employers to prove why flexibility won’t work, instead of on us to argue why it will. This is all thanks in part to Anna Whitehouse’s Flex Appeal campaign, which is working towards flexible working for all. She recently  took her tiny newborn into parliament to talk on the subject and support 50:50 Parliament’s call for more female politicians, so mothers' voices are really heard and their needs supported. She's the best of us. 

It’s been said that pregnancy is as taxing on the body as running a marathon every day for 40 weeks, but how about doing all that while also competing in the Olympics? Athletes at 2024’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris proved pregnant people can still be at the top of their game by acing it on the world stage. Egypt's Nada Hafez revealed , after competing in her fencing event, that she was seven months pregnant at the time, while Azerbaijani archer Yaylagul Ramazanova also competed at six months pregnant. Jodie Grinham then became the first pregnant woman to win a Paralympic medal, taking home bronze in archery when she was seven months pregnant with her second child. Though everyone’s pregnancies and energy levels are different (you might find getting dressed challenging enough in your third trimester and that’s okay too), all three are golden for breaking taboos and empowering pregnant women the world over.

2024 cemented secondhand and sustainable shopping as more than just a passing trend. With growing awareness of the impact nappies, plastic toys, and thousands of tiny white vests have on the planet, parents have been striving to make more eco-friendly, thoughtful choices.

This year, if you complimented an outfit—whether it was on a mum mate at the school gates, a toddler at a birthday party, or a scrunchy newborn—you were just as likely to hear, “Oh, I got it on Vinted,” as “It’s from Octopus Club.” Platforms like Vinted, The Little Loop, and peer-to-peer selling spaces such as Octopus Club have become gold mines for everything from lightly used kids' toys to pre-loved nursery bag back-ups. Forbes even highlighted Vinted’s “explosive increase” in its UK user base, driven by a blend of economic necessity and a growing awareness of sustainability.

Another way mums have been reducing waste and their fast fashion footprint in 2024 is through rental, which is having a serious moment, especially for maternity and postpartum wardrobes. For The Creator’s have just introduced the option to rent occasionally, meaning UK mums can now borrow maternity jeans, party dresses or breastfeeding-friendly knits from £15 for 10 days. 

No more buying new pieces to wear for only a few weeks or months—and no more mountains of dirty laundry, as we handles that too.

It’s a win-win for parents and the planet.

The UK has the most expensive childcare system in Europe. According to new data from Pregnant Then Screwed which was released this year, 33.6% of mothers are currently unable to return to work full-time due to childcare costs or availability. “We’ve not only got a cost of living crisis, we’ve got a cost of working crisis that disproportionately impacts mothers,” said founder Joeli Brearley. However, change is afoot. The government introduced new schemes this year to provide more affordable and funded childcare for working parents. From April, working parents of two-year-olds were able to access 15 hours of funded childcare, while from September that applied to all children from the age of 9 months. From September next year, that’ll turn into 30 hours of funded childcare a week for working parents. It’s not been without controversy, with many parents being  unable to actually find a place  for their child, even if the funding is available in theory. But as of 2024, we might be on the way to improving the childcare landscape. 

There are a whole lot fewer elves on our shelves this season. Anything that adds to the maternal mental load is being questioned, and we don't want to sound like the Grinch, but if the elves don't bring you joy, they've got to go. 

There was also movement on social media over summer 2024 to ditch perfectly planned or high-pressure days out for pyjama days, grass stains and a bit of old-fashioned boredom. It was dubbed a ‘90s summer’ (kind of like a Brat summer but for parents) and it meant goodbye plans, schedules and unrealistic expectations, hello outdoorsy fun and freedom. Whether or not it was as dreamy as it sounds is unclear, but what we do like is the focus on taking the pressure off. It’s clear from all the maternal rage and burnout 81% of mums are experiencing right now that we’re struggling to live up to the impossibly high expectations we set ourselves as parents. 

If aiming for a ‘90’s summer’ or ditching extra festive admin can relieve the pressure on parents to feel like they have to do all the ‘things’, all the time, it's a movement we can wholeheartedly back.

Whether you’ve already got tech-obsessed, school-aged kids or are stressing about what the future will look like for your tiny babe, one parent-led movement this year had us feeling all warm, fuzzy and empowered. What started as one parent WhatsApp group became a national movement earlier this year, when Smartphone Free Childhood was founded in February. There are now more than 150,000 UK parents working together to change the culture around kids and smartphones, increasing awareness, pressuring government and big tech and empowering schools. 

Parents in over a third of the UK’s schools have now signed a pact, promising not to give smartphones to their under 14s. A reminder that if something doesn’t feel right for us, that we have an enormous amount of power to change it, especially if we come together to do so (and that also sometimes it’s worth un-muting the school group chat in case something wonderful is happening in there!)

There’s nothing quite like the heartache of losing a baby, and it can so often be compounded by a lack of understanding, well-meaning but misguided words of consolation or a lack of support from your workplace. This year, for the first time, bereaved parents who have lost a baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy in England were able to apply for a certificate in recognition of their loss. The new government scheme, which launched in February, aims to provide parents with formal acknowledgement that their baby existed. Up until now, the births or deaths of babies who pass away before 24 weeks weren’t officially registered. The certificates are free and can be applied for retrospectively. They are entirely optional, so whether or not you want to apply is a personal choice, but, for some parents, it’s a powerful recognition of their grief. "We know the scheme has already made a difference to thousands of people... who might previously have felt their babies were forgotten in the world," says the pregnancy and baby charity Tommys. 

There’s still a long way to go—54,000 women are made redundant each year in the UK simply for having a baby. But 2024 brought a glimmer of progress. Mothers returning to work from maternity leave now have a little more protection: it’s the law that if you’ve taken or are taking maternity leave and are at risk of redundancy, you must be given priority for suitable alternative employment for 18 months from your child’s date of birth. It’s not exactly watertight, but it’s a step in the right direction.

We’ve also inched forward in improving the UK’s dire parental leave situation. The UK still has the worst paternity leave in Europe, and less than 2% of families use Shared Parental Leave because it’s “too poorly paid, too complicated, and forces dads to take leave away from mums.” But this year, the government made promises to make paternity and parental leave a day-one right.

That’s thanks in part to Dadshift, a group launched in 2024 of dads, men, and parents campaigning for “big changes to make paternity leave substantial, affordable, and more equal.” One of their standout actions? Dressing up bronze statues of men across central London in baby carriers for the day.

The campaigning didn't stop there. If there’s one thing all mamas have in common, it’s the bone-deep desire for our babies to have happy and healthy futures. 2024 has been a heavy one, with humanitarian crises and climate breakdown almost constantly in the news, but it’s also been the year a lot of us started doing something about securing those safe futures for our kids.

Activism led by parents and caregivers isn’t new, but, as a recent article in Nature states, “today, the number of these grassroots groups is growing, with mothers, fathers, and grandparents becoming increasingly engaged in environmental health and climate advocacy at both local and international levels”. According to Parents for Future UK, in 2024, over 85% of UK parents are worried about climate change affecting their children and, right now, the UK is behind only the US when it comes to the number of parent-led climate groups.

Parents have been showing, through writing to MPs, signing petitions, advocating for climate-friendly policies, participating in peaceful, family-friendly actions, and making more sustainable choices in their own lives, that we can and will turn our love for our children into powerful change.

2024 saw a serious (and much-welcome) shift towards authenticity. No one put it better than the New York Times : “For every tradwife social media feed or organic-juicing momfluencer in her clutter-free kitchen who presents a gauzy portrait of idyllic motherhood, we’re served up a sea of scathing counterpoints: Instagram posts about stretch marks; TikTok posts bemoaning messy kid-tossed houses; podcasts discussing postpartum depression.”

Loneliness, mum rage, burn out – nothing is off the table anymore, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it. We saw the gory, messy, uncomfortable side of motherhood in pop culture (hello, Nightbitch!), we listened to podcasts about prolapse, and famous mums dropped the glossy facade and got real about their motherhoods too: Adwoa Aboah shared her healing c-section scar on Instagram and Aisling Bea gave her pregnancy a scathing 1* review, while Paloma Faith talked openly about maternal burnout. In a world where Rhianna is open about how she has to "push this up, snatch this in" post-pregnancy and is honest about how "having kids means you’re going to worry every second of your life", us mere mortals won't be hiding our low moments, parenting fails and messy realities for a minute longer.