Motherhood

All women should have the right to choose if or when to be mothers, and to have the economic and social support to do so. This choice has been restricted across time and place due to discriminatory legislation against mothers and pregnant people, lackluster social safety nets and anti-abortion/anti-birth control movements.

‘What About Me?’: Bringing Women’s Well-Being to the Forefront of Motherhood

PUBLISHED 5/20/2025 by

Earlier this month, I attended a “power breakfast” hosted by the Chamber of Mothers, an organization and movement driving national support for mothers. I was shocked and frankly disillusioned by how much basic maternal healthcare was emphasized as an area of desperate need.  

The way the U.S. understands, or refuses to understand, maternal health makes even asking for care a baffling proposition. Dawn Huckelbridge, founder of Paid Leave for All, recounted the moment she truly became “fired up and fed up” after giving birth to her first child. Huckelbridge was prepared in every sense: She had a supportive partner, health insurance and parents who could help her out. Upon delivering her baby, what she recalls as a traumatic experience for her mind and body, she was given even more resources for the baby: diapers, blankets, instructive care literature. 

And when she asked her doctor, “Well, what about me? What do I have to do to take care of my body?” he replied, “Things just have a way of healing.” That was the official prescription for a mother who had been carrying a baby for 40 weeks and had only given birth a moment ago.

“I’d hate to believe that it’s because we don’t care about mothers and that we don’t want to see them in power,” said Erin Erenberg, co-founder and CEO of the Chamber of Mothers.

Why Democracy Needs Data—and What Happens When It Vanishes

PUBLISHED 5/20/2025 by and

In the first few months of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, one thing has become crystal clear: The war on gender and racial equity is being waged in a new arena—on the battleground of data.

This fight isn’t waged with tweets or soundbites. It’s carried out through budget cuts, shuttered research programs and disappearing federal surveys. It’s a quiet but devastating assault on the tools we rely on to tell the truth—and to hold those in power accountable. And the message is chilling: If we can’t measure inequality, maybe we can pretend it doesn’t exist.

When race is stripped from maternal health reports, we overlook the crisis facing Black mothers. When LGBTQ+ identity is erased from youth surveys, we lose critical insight into mental health and safety. When disability status is omitted from labor market data, inequities in access and pay go unaddressed.

We need a renewed federal commitment to the research infrastructure that allows us to see and solve inequality—not ignore it.

Why Trump’s Pronatalist Agenda Is Actually Anti-Motherhood

PUBLISHED 5/9/2025 by

This Mother’s Day, for the 111th year in a row, families across the nation will gather to celebrate all the love, care and work provided by the mothers in their lives. Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a federal holiday nearly a year after he established the basis of today’s modern income tax system, allowing him to lower tariff rates on many of the basic necessities American families relied on in 1914.

It is darkly ironic that more than a century later, the Trump administration is attempting to reverse these pro-family policies, while at the same time promoting a pronatalist agenda aimed at creating more mothers and larger families. 

Despite promoting motherhood, Trump’s policies threaten the economic stability of the 45 percent of mothers who are primary breadwinners—especially single moms and women of color.

To Protect Children, We Must Protect Abortion

PUBLISHED 5/9/2025 by

My child is front of mind in every single decision I make—from the obviously big ones, like where we live and our travel plans for the year, down to the smallest, like what color shirt I’m wearing for the day. (My son’s in a “match with Mom” phase right now.) Most parents will tell you the same: that our entire world revolves around the needs of our children. We operate in ways that we hope center their best interests because as parents, we want nothing more than for our children to thrive.

My third abortion was just that—a decision I made with my son in mind. 

My child deserves the happiest and healthiest version of his mom, as do all children who already exist to people who are having abortions! The happiest version of my son’s mom is the one who had an abortion. 

‘Mama’s in the Hole’: How Solitary Confinement Tries to Break Family Bonds

PUBLISHED 5/9/2025 by and

In this powerful mother-daughter exchange, Summer Knight and Kwaneta Harris reveal how nearly a decade of forced silence through solitary confinement shattered their bond—and how they’re fighting to rebuild it, piece by piece.

“Everything I did in my daily life, I’d wonder how Mama was doing the same thing in that hole. Was she cold? Could she see the sky?”

“How do you compress motherhood into five minutes at midnight? How do you explain to a child why you’re not calling on her birthday, her graduation, after her father died? … Without communication, we became strangers. She grew up with a ghost for a mother, and I mothered a memory.”

Motherhood’s Dirty Secret? Sometimes It Feels Like Hate.

PUBLISHED 5/8/2025 by

Mothering is traditionally expressed in terms of extremes: The mother is imagined as either all giving, tender and devoted … or its opposite: mean, selfish and self-serving.

Social media generally mirrors this trend and divides mothering between something that is achievable in all its wonder and selflessness, or an experience that is continually dismal.

It is both.

No Room to Pump, No Room for Error: One Mother’s Fight to Feed Her Baby at Work

PUBLISHED 5/8/2025 by

Could a system that was more responsive to parents’ needs improve their relationships, their children’s lives, even their sense of self? I began to report on that question and my book, Four Mothers: An Intimate Journey Through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries, is the result. It follows four women—from the U.S., Japan, Kenya and Finland, who all had babies around New Year 2022—through their first year of motherhood, to draw an intimate portrait of their lives and compare the support they received.

Read an excerpt from the book about one new mother’s experience in Kenya, where laws promise breastfeeding protections but workplaces often ignore them.

‘I Just Want My Babies to Be at Peace’: A Mississippi Single Mom on Surviving the System

PUBLISHED 5/8/2025 by

Front & Center began as first-person accounts of Black mothers in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income. Now in its fourth year, the series is expanding to explore broader systemic issues affecting Black women in poverty, including the safety net, healthcare, caregiving and overall well-being.

Maylasalisa has a newborn and is juggling school and caretaking while also trying to find work. She is the recipient of one year of guaranteed income from the Magnolia Mother’s Trust.

“Balancing work and motherhood isn’t easy, especially with a newborn. Right now, I have no choice but to stay home … If I could speak directly to the governor or the president, I’d ask for more help for single mothers—better programs that actually provide efficient support without all the runaround. There needs to be real opportunities for people to get and keep jobs, better transportation and more accessible resources. They have the money to do these things, they just don’t want to.”