This dissertation explores spiritual transformation and church involvement in the transition to motherhood. To conduct this study, the author interviewed ten women twice: once during pregnancy, and once postpartum for their first live birth. The author asked the women to speak to their spirituality and church involvement. The women identified to some degree with the Christian faith and had a background of church attendance. After coding these interviews using grounded theory, the author proposes that matrescence may bring about shifts in identity; experiences of vulnerability; and loving connection with the child. These experiences, and the emotional extremes and ambiguity associated with them, led many women in the study to a new vision of God and a new approach to the world. Most of the women in the study, however, did not have a space for discussing the spiritual aspects of their matrescence, including the role of negative affect. The congregations they attended frequently provided meals and informal networks of emotional support, but often did not provide a space for discussing their spirituality.

The author builds a model for churches to use to support women in their spirituality as they transition to motherhood by exploring the themes of vulnerability, loving connection, and identity in the social sciences and theologically. The author shows how vulnerability, when met by loving connection, may lead to a strengthened identity. This interaction may indicate why matrescence has such power for transformation of identity. It also points to the role churches can play in supporting spiritual transformation and identity shifts in the transition to motherhood. Congregations can encourage the process of spiritual formation in matrescence: first, by providing for the physical and emotional needs of the new family, and second by creating spaces for spiritual narration, and affirming this narration. Telling a spiritual narration is a vulnerable act, but when met with a loving response, may lead to a strengthened spiritual identity. The author proposes a practical exercise which congregations can use to elicit and connect to the spiritual narrative of the transition to motherhood and help women birth their new identity and spirituality. This exercise could be used for other key transitions in a person's life, especially when the identity is being re-formed.