A Child Is Born, and So Is a Mother

There is one thing that unites every person ever born on this earth: a mother.

No matter whether you were born into wealth or poverty, in a city or a village, a hundred years ago or today – your journey into this world began through a woman. Through her body, her pain, her breath. It is perhaps the most universal human experience there is. And yet, for every woman who becomes a mother, it is also entirely unique.

On one hand, it is a deeply shared experience. On the other, profoundly personal. Many women admit that before becoming mothers, they believed they knew what to expect: sleepless nights, feeding schedules, endless worry. Yes, all of that is true. But no one fully explains what happens internally.

The first time you hold your child in your arms, something inside you changes irreversibly. It is as though the center of your world is quietly rearranged. What once felt most important suddenly fades in significance, while this tiny, helpless, beautiful human being becomes everything.

Psychologists call this transformation “matrescence” – the birth of a mother. Just as adolescence marks the transition from childhood into adulthood, motherhood is a passage into an entirely new identity. And much like adolescence, it can be confusing, emotionally intense, and full of contradictions – even if society often prefers to romanticize motherhood instead of speaking honestly about its complexity.

Women who become mothers often describe life in two chapters: “before” and “after.”

“Before” – when your own needs stood at the center. When you could decide spontaneously where to go, what to do, how to spend your time. When silence was simply silence, not a luxury.

“After” – a world in which another human being depends entirely on you. Where your sleep, your time, your thoughts are constantly shared with someone else. Many women say that although “before” felt freer, “after” feels deeper. As though you suddenly begin seeing colors that were always there, but invisible before.

The love you feel for your child is unlike any other kind of love. It is not romantic – it is primal, instinctive, almost animal in its intensity. And alongside that love comes a kind of fear you may never have known before: fear of loss, fear of not being enough, fear that the world might hurt the person you love more than yourself.

Physically, the body goes through something almost impossible to fully explain in words. Pregnancy, birth, recovery – these are not simply bodily changes after which a woman returns to who she once was. She does not. I still remember how deeply struck I was learning that archaeologists, thousands of years from now, could examine a woman’s bones and know whether she once carried a child.

The mind changes too. Research shows that motherhood literally reshapes the brain: areas responsible for empathy, vigilance, and social understanding become stronger. Mothers often become more attuned to the needs of others, more perceptive, more sensitive to what remains unspoken.

And the soul? Some women say motherhood brought them back to what matters most. Others say it was the first time they truly understood unconditional love. Still others admit that motherhood forced them to confront the hardest questions about who they are – and who they want to become. I am no longer surprised by how many women change the direction of their lives after having children. It is as though a new compass appears.

There are people who no longer have the chance to call their mother today. Mothers who have passed away because of illness, old age, or sudden loss. For them, this day can feel especially heavy.

And there are people whose relationship with their mother was never simple. Those for whom motherhood – whether received or experienced personally – has been painful, complicated, imperfect. Motherhood is not always beautiful. More often, it is profoundly human: flawed, searching, unfinished.

But one fact remains unchanged: every one of us entered this world through a woman. The fact that we are here, breathing, reading these words – began with HER.

So today, I say THANK YOU to my own mother, because with her, my world began.

And THANK YOU to motherhood itself – because through it began the world that holds all of ours. ❤️