Motherhood

​I grew up without the care and love of a mother to protect and guide me. Naturally, there were family members who loved me and cared for my physical and mental welfare. However, the circumstances of losing my mother at a young age impacted me profoundly, particularly in the ways I reared my children. 

​I believe the greatest gift in life is to have a mother; something I never took for granted. For a mother’s love is priceless and nothing can compare with a mother’s unstinting love and guidance along life’s journey. 

The loss of my mother was inexpressible and no one replaced her. So, I grew up with a void and envied those mother-daughter relationships I witnessed particularly as a child. Deprived of this privilege, I found ways to compensate for the absence of my mother, and therein lay my solution: I had to rely on myself and found the strength of character in order to succeed in life.

During my young days as a practising midwife, each time I delivered a baby I witnessed the mother’s joy as I placed the swaddled infant in her outstretched arms. The look of utter contentment was a perfect picture that no photograph could do justice. In that moment, the mother exuded perfect and profound love for the wholly dependent miracle she cradled.  The spark that was ignited at their first encounter would be ever-present and was a silent force that bonded mother and child and would only deepen with time.

All the angst and pain a mother endures throughout her pregnancy and labour to deliver her innocent baby was forgotten in that intimate moment.

However, intrinsic in the notion of motherhood are angst and pain. Nothing can bring a mother more joy, nor greater grief than a child in need, trouble or danger. 

​Motherhood by its very definition is selflessness, sacrifice and duty.