Motherhood – The birth of a woman
Giving conscious birth is an indescribable adventure like no other experience a woman will encounter. For nine months a woman’s body replicates human life from its own blood, bones and organs and houses and carries this new life within itself. Then at the appointed time the birthing process begins. This adventure feels akin to the undulation of an ocean encapsulated within one’s body with a connection to an expansive universal life force determined to issue forth through one’s loins. The sheer magnitude of the feeling imposes total and complete surrender to an experience one is powerless to delay, to subvert or to redirect. Possessed by an awesome force and an unchallenged intelligence, the mother’s body experiences a force much greater than itself. Under the hypnotic spell of nature’s rhythm, the mother surrenders to the riveting ebb and flow of the birthing process and upon its completion, and in sheer exhaustion, gratefully embraces the sweet bliss of sleep.
Birthing the woman
Who gives birth to whom? Does the mother give birth to the baby or does the baby birth the mother…the woman. Babies are catalysts for transformation and in their innocence, helplessness and sweetness they woo their mothers in rearranging and redirecting her focus to satisfy their needs. Fulfilling these needs demands that the childbearer taps into her inner resources and brings them to bear on the mothering process. Such an exercise requires self-effacement, self-surrender and selflessness: in no other relationship is so much demanded and so much willingly given. From birth until a child’s age of self-sufficiency, a mother’s decisions and actions are tempered by considerations for her children: they are the centre of her universe; her point of reference. Mother become child-centred in focus, rather than, self-centred and she puts her life in service to her child. This transformation gives birth to the mature woman.
The gifts of motherhood
It is not unusual for the deepest love and gratitude for one’s mother to become kindled or rekindled when a woman becomes a mother herself. Motherhood creates an opportunity to metamorphose and to manifest the highest virtues of human consciousness, and if missed, deprives a woman of many opportunities for personal growth. Motherhood is a course in personal development and transformation: a path for conscious evolution and learning unconditional love. Mothers learn compassion, discipline, service, surrender, commitment, loyalty, and above all, active love.
Surrogate mothers
While motherhood is not the exclusive domain of women who give biological birth, the experience engages a profound sense of responsibility and commitment and affirms the old saying, “no pain, no gain”. There are, nonetheless many childless women who have inducted themselves into the duty and service of mothering children, and such women deserve the highest honour. Mother Theresa, one such mother, devoted her life to caring for the poor in India. Her famous words are, “Choose always the hardest course”.
A channel for the species
The most rewarding legacy of motherhood is in witnessing the “fruits of one’s womb” blossoming into purposeful, productive adults with a reverence for life, and conversely, the curse of motherhood is in witnessing the descent of one’s children into the lowest states of virtuelessness and dependency. To reap a positive, long-term reality for our children, mothers must keep the ‘end’ in mind and cultivate the attitudes and behaviours to accomplish this goal. What becomes important then is not our role as mother, but, the pre-requisite attitudes and actions that will make us lifelong beneficiaries of our children’s goodwill, love and interest. This is a privilege earned by way of our appropriate treatment of children during their first, dependent 20 years of life. Motherhood is essentially the privilege of channelling and cultivating the highest quality of the human species.
