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Mothers, the Most Important Women

© Nancy Coulter

This article was originally written for Suite101's Mother's Day celebration. Editors from a wide variety of topics came together to celebrate mothering and their moms.

You can also find this article listed with many others for the Valentines 2000 event. Once again, the incredible editors of Suite101 have put together a wonderful package of articles for the Valentine "season". Be sure to enjoy all the other articles that are available.

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"Being a mother is a noble status, right? Right. So why does it change when you put 'unwed' or 'welfare' in front of it?" - Florynce Kennedy

Most of us, if pressed to think of one woman who we admire the most, would probably choose our mothers. I know that I would. There are all sorts of famous women who I have grown to admire over the years. In my eyes, none of them can hold a candle to my mother.

When it all comes down to it, our mothers are the ones who gave us life. They are the ones who went through nine months of pregnancy, labor and then childbirth...just so that we could have the chance to make our mark on the world. All of that is within the first few months of life. We haven't even gotten into the expenses of raising a child in today's society (and I know my mother could go on and on about that topic).

Of course, some women have made the choice to adopt, which makes their sacrifice no less than a biological mother. Yes, they didn't go through the physical pain of having a child. However, adoption can be an extremely emotional experience. Plus, somewhere down the line, that mother will have to explain to the child that she isn't her natural mother. Adoptive mothers may not have to deal with labor pains, but the pains that their heart has to go through can be just has bad.

Many women who choose to adopt can't actually give birth. This can be a tremendous blow to their self-esteem. There were times when the only thing that women had towards their worth in a society was the fact that they gave birth. If it wasn't for that, they would have seemed useless. So when a woman finds out that she can't do something that is so connected to being a woman (like childbirth is), it can be an extremely hard situation to deal with. A woman has to come face to face with that problem if she decides to adopt a child.

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