Babette Lockefeer is the founder of Matermorphosis: the place for ambitious women where motherhood turns into transformation. She works at the intersection of matrescence and leadership development, using her own frameworks like the Map of Matrescence, the Matrescence Arc, and the Working Mom Renaissance Method. Before Matermorphosis, she spent over a decade in strategy and business leadership, including at McKinsey and at Alibaba in China. She lives in the Netherlands with her husband and three little boys.
← All profilesI was using a horizontal tool on a vertical problem. You cannot out-work a change in who you are.
Babette Lockefeer, Matermorphosis
Read it the way it ran in print.
Her signature interview runs in the July 2026 issue, pages 37–44. Below is the actual spread, page for page, exactly as it appears in print.
You came from a high performance, corporate world that rewards hustle. When you became a mother you thought you could manage your way through it. What was the moment you realized that wasn't going to work?
I came from a world where every problem eventually yields to more effort. When I became pregnant I simply extended it to my body. Becoming a mother was just another project to optimise and out-execute. What I understand now is that I was using a horizontal tool on a vertical problem. You cannot out-work a change in who you are any more than you can un-boil an egg by trying harder.
You have completely redesigned how your family operates. What has that redesign actually given you?
Our redesign began the day I told my husband I wanted to quit. The more I understood the mechanics of both matrescence and the script, the more we could decouple from the defaults and ask what kind of life we actually wanted to build. We distilled our values: authenticity, adventure, community, contribution, intrinsic development. There is no single right way. The invitation of matrescence is to find your own way, and go after it unapologetically.
Read the full feature in the July 2026 issue.
Open the issue
