By Besty Aniol and Stephanie DeFilippis
For many women, Mother’s Day is filled with celebration, gratitude, and connection. But for others, the holiday can bring grief, anxiety, loneliness, and emotional overwhelm especially for those navigating motherhood without their own mother.
Whether you’ve lost your mother through death, estrangement, abandonment, complicated family dynamics, or emotional absence, Mother’s Day can intensify feelings that are already difficult to carry. If you are grieving your mother while raising children of your own, you are not alone.
At Crescent Moon Therapy, we often support women navigating postpartum mental health challenges, identity shifts after becoming a mother, and unresolved grief connected to their own upbringing. Many new mothers find that pregnancy, postpartum recovery, infertility, birth trauma, and raising children can bring old wounds and maternal grief to the surface in unexpected ways.
As a practice specializing in perinatal mental health therapy, postpartum therapy, and maternal mental health counseling, we understand how emotionally layered Mother’s Day can feel for women who are simultaneously grieving, parenting, healing, and trying to care for themselves.
The Emotional Impact of Being Motherless on Mother’s Day
Many women report experiencing:
- Sadness and grief
- Anxiety or emotional numbness
- Feelings of emptiness
- Bitterness or resentment
- Regret or guilt
- Loneliness and disconnection
- Difficulty enjoying the holiday
These emotions can feel even more complicated when you are simultaneously trying to create joyful experiences for your own children while quietly carrying your own grief.
For some mothers, these emotions can also overlap with:
- Postpartum depression
- Postpartum anxiety
- Postpartum rage
- Birth trauma
- Identity loss after motherhood
- Parenting stress and burnout
- Infertility grief or pregnancy loss
These experiences are more common than many realize and can become especially heightened around emotionally charged holidays like Mother’s Day.
Maria Shriver beautifully described this experience in her blog post about navigating Mother’s Day without a mother:
“Whether we lose our mothers to death, abandonment, or other circumstances, there are many of us out here who often feel unable to participate in all the daisy-clad celebrations surrounding this holiday. The constant commercials, card displays, and gift-giving prompts can bring an unusual amount of emotions to the surface.”
You can read her full article here: Maria Shriver’s article on honoring Mother’s Day without your mother
There Is No “Correct” Relationship With Your Mother. Every person’s relationship with their mother is unique.
You may:
- Have deeply loved your mother
- Have had a painful or traumatic relationship
- Feel conflicted about your loss
- Have never known your mother
- Be estranged from your mother
- Have been raised by a stepmother, grandmother, or other caregiver
Grief is complicated. Motherhood is complicated. And becoming a mother can often bring unresolved emotions about your own childhood or maternal relationships to the surface in unexpected ways.
This is something many women explore in postpartum therapy and maternal mental health counseling. Becoming a mother can reshape how we understand our own childhood experiences, attachment wounds, and family relationships.
Coping Strategies for Mother’s Day When You’ve Lost Your Mother
If Mother’s Day feels emotionally heavy this year, these coping strategies may help support you:
- Spend Time With Safe, Supportive People
- Honor the People Who Have Mothered You
- Acknowledge Your Own Mothering
- Give Yourself Permission to Grieve
- Skip Mother’s Day Altogether
- Create Your Own Meaningful Rituals
- Find Community
- Reach Out for Professional Support
If this season feels particularly activating or emotionally intense, working with a postpartum therapist or perinatal mental health therapist can help you process grief, motherhood transitions, anxiety, trauma, and emotional overwhelm in a supportive space.
If you are searching for a postpartum therapist, maternal mental health therapist, or perinatal therapist, we encourage you to reach out to our team at Crescent Moon Therapy.
