A mother
is a biological and/or social female parent of an offspring. [1] Because of the complexity and differences of a mothers' social, cultural, and religious definitions and roles, it is challenging to define a mother to suit a universally accepted definition.
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MUM TICKETS
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Biological mother
In the case of a
mammal such as a
human, the biological mother
gestates a fertilized
ovum. As a viable fertilised ovum or "
embryo" ideally develops into a
fetus. Gestation occurs in the mother's
uterus from
conception until (under ideal circumstances, barring illness or defect) the fetus is sufficiently developed to be born. The mother experiences
labor and gives
birth. Once the child is born, the mother produces
milk via the
lactation process. The mother's
breast milk is the source of
anti-bodies for the infant's
immune system and commonly the sole source of
nutrition for the first year or more of the child's life.
[2] [3] [4]
Surrogate mother
A surrogate mother is, commonly, a woman who bears the
embryo to
term for a couple biologically unable to have children. Upon the child’s birth, the surrogate mother surrenders all her rights and responsibilities to the child
[5] with sole intention of surrendering the infant to at least one of the biological parents.
[6] [7]
Title
The term
mother
is often given to a woman other than the biological parent, especially if she who fulfills the main social role in raising the child. This is commonly either an
adoptive mother or a
stepmother (the biologically unrelated
wife of a child's
father). In
lesbian cultures, a non-biological mother, or so-called "
othermother" exists.
Currently, with advances in
reproductive technologies, the function of biological motherhood can be split between the genetic mother (who provides the ovum) and the gestational (commonly known as a surrogate) mother (who carries the
pregnancy), and it is also poneither will serve as the social mother (the one who
rears the child). A healthy connection between a mother and a child form a secure base, from which the child may later venture forth into the world.
[8]
Social role
Mothers have historically fulfilled the primary role in raising children, but since the late 20th century, the role of the father in child care has been given greater prominence and social acceptance in some Western countries.
[9] [10]
The social role and experience of motherhood varies greatly depending upon location. The organization
Save the Children has (controversially) ranked the countries of the world, and found that
Scandinavian countries are the safest places to give birth, whereas countries in
sub-Saharan Africa are the least safest to give birth
[11]. This study argues a mother in the bottom ten ranked countries is over 750 times more likely to
die in pregnancy or childbirth, compared to a mother in the top ten ranked countries, and a mother in the bottom ten ranked countries is 28 times more likely to
see her child die before reaching their first birthday.
Mothers are more likely than fathers to encourage assimilative and communion-enhancing patterns in their children.
[12] Mothers are more likely than fathers to acknowledge their children's contributions in conversation.
[13] [14] [15] The way mothers speak to their children is better suited to support very young children in their efforts to understand speech (in context of the reference English) than fathers.
[16]
Since the 1970s,
in vitro fertilization has made pregnancy possible at ages well beyond "natural" limits, generating ethical controversy and forcing significant changes in the social meaning of motherhood.
[17] [18]
This is, however a position highly biased by Western world locality: outside the Western world, in-vitro fertilization has far less prominence, importance or currency compared to primary, basic healthcare, womens' basic health, reducing infant mortality and the prevention of life-threatening diseases such as
polio,
typhus and
malaria.
US Motherhood Statistics
Assorted and non-inclusive statistics on motherhood from the U.S. Census Bureau.
[19]
- 82.5 million women are mothers of all ages in the United States.
- 68% of women aged 15 to 44 are mothers in Mississippi, considered high in comparison to a national average for same age group of 56%.
- 82% of women aged 40 to 44 years old are mothers.
- 4.0 million women give birth annually, approximately 425,000 were teenage mothers (aged 15 to 19) and more than 100,000 were aged 40 or over.
- 25.1 years of age is the national average age of women for their first births, a record high an increase of 4 years since 1970.
- 40% of annual births are the mother’s first. Another 32 percent are the second-born; 17 percent, third; and 11 percent, fourth or more.
- 35,000 of births in 2002 were attended by physicians, midwives or others outside a hospital facility.
- 55% of mothers with infant children in 2002 were employed, down from the record 59 percent in 1998, the first significant decline since the Census Bureau began collating such data in 1976. In 1976, 31% of mothers with infants were employed.
- 63% of employed women with infant children are college-educated.
- 72% of employed women, between ages 15 and 44 are mothers without infants.
- 687,000 child day-care centers operated in the USA in 2002. Of these, 69,000 centers employed close to 750,000 workers and another 618,000 were self-employed persons or companies without paid employees. Many mothers use such centers to juggle the demands of motherhood and career.
Religious
Nearly all world religions define tasks or roles for mothers through either
religious law or through the
deification or
glorification of mothers who served in substantial religious events. There are many examples of religious law relating to mothers and women.
Major world religions which have specific religious law or
scriptural canon regarding mothers include:
Christians,
[20] Jews,
[21] and
Muslims.
[22] Some examples of glorification or deification include the
Madonna or
Blessed Virgin Mother Mary
for
Christians, the
Hindu Mother Goddess, or
Demeter of ancient Greek pre-Christian belief.
In
Islam, the Q'uran dictates the mother occupying an importance and position three times superior to that of the father. However, while the mother is considered the most important member of the family, she is not the head of the family.
Synonyms and translations
The proverbial "first word" of an infant often sounds like "ma" or "mama". This strong association of that sound with "mother" has persisted in nearly every language on earth, countering the natural localization of language.
Familiar or colloquial terms for
mother
in English are:
- mom
or mommy
, in most of North America (especially the U.S.).
- mum
or mummy
, is used in the UK, Canada, Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand
- Ma
, Mam
or Mammy
is used in Ireland and sometimes in the UK and the US.
- Maa
, Amma
, Mata
is used in India and sometimes in neighboring countries, originating from the Sanskrit matrika
and mata
- "mama" is used in many countries, but is considered a Spanish form of "mother"
thumb mother goddess
Parvati feeding her son, the elephant-headed wisdom god
Ganesha
In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply:
- mama
in Polish and Slovak
- mama
(??/??) in Chinese and Japanese
- máma
in Czech
- maman
in French and Persian
- ma
, mama
or Ibu
in Indonesian language
- mamma
in Italian and Icelandic
- mãe
in Portuguese
- Ami
in Punjabi
- mama
in Swahili
- eema
(???) in Hebrew
- má
or m?
in Vietnamese
- mam
in Welsh
- eomma
(??, ) in Korean
- In many south Asian cultures and the Middle East the mother is known as amma
or oma
or ammi
or "ummi", or variations thereof. Many times these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child's life.
Famous motherhood figures
- Ammachi
- Bithiah
- Charity
- Demeter
- Dewi Sri- Javanese pre-Hindu, pre-Islamic era fertility and rice Goddess still widely worshiped today.
- Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist
- Eve, mother of Cain and Able
- Gaia
- Hagar
- Isis
- Jijabai
- Jocasta, mother of Oedipus, important in Freudian psychology
- Juno
- Kwan Yin
- Queen Maya
- Euripides' Medea
- Mary (mother of Jesus)
- Naomi (Bible)
- Parvati
- Rani Lakshmibai
- Sita
- Venus
See also
}}|mother}}
in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
}}
- Mary
- Attachment parenting
- Breastfeeding
- Human bonding
- Jungian archetypes
- Lactation
- Matriarch
- Matricide
- Mother Goose
- Matrilocal residence
- Mother insult
- Mother ship
- Mother goddess
- Mother Superior or Abbess
- Mother's Day
- Mothers rights
- Nuclear family
- Oedipus complex
- Othermother
- Parenting
- Single parent
References
- http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mother
- http://www.dhushara.com/paradoxhtm/biology.htm
- GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
- Chapter 46 ANIMAL REPRODUCTION
- http://www.yourdictionary.com/law/surrogate-mother
- http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/surrogate_mother.
- Surrogate motherhood By Larry Ogalthorpe Gostin
- Diane S. Feinberg, M.Ed. The Importance of Mother and Child Attachment
- "In most Western countries the family model of a sole male breadwinner is in full retreat." Accessed 19 September 2007.
- Why Are Fathers Important? Interview with Dr. Ross Parke, professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, author of ''Fatherhood'' (1966) and co-author of ''Throwaway Dads'' (1999). Accessed 19 September 2007.
- Save the Children, State of the World's Mothers Report 2006.
- Gendered differences in parents' encouragement of sibling interaction: implications for the construction of a personal premise system
- Hladik, E., & Edwards, H. (1984). A comparison of mother-father speech in the naturalistic home environment. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 13, 321-332.
- Leaper, C., Anderson, K., & Sanders, P. (1998). Moderators of gender effects on parents' talk to their children: A meta-analysis. Developmental Psychology, 34, 3-27.
- Mannle, S., & Tomasello, M. (1987). Fathers, siblings, and the bridge hypothesis. In K.E. Nelson & A. vanKleeck (Eds.), Children's language, Vol. 6, (pp. 23-42). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Fathers' speech to their children: perfect pitch or tin ear?
- Motherhood: Is It Ever Too Late?, July 15, 2009
- Getting Pregnant After 50: Risks, Rewards July 17, 2009
- http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/004109
- What The Bible Says About Mother
- Religious Obligations of Jewish women
- The Ideal Muslimah: The True Islâmic Personality of the Muslim Woman as Defined in the Qur’ân and Sunnah