A good friend of mine who has 'baby fever' recently asked me if I think she'll be a good mother.
Other than the fact that I think she will be, motherhood - at least in my experience - has been a process of trial and error, of learning and most of all - trusting those maternal instincts that kick in as soon as we hold our baby in our arms for the first time.
I believe - that believing in ourselves - is the biggest trick to it all.
With that final 'push' at shortly past midnight on December 23rd, and the doctor showed me my son for the first time, I cried uncontrollably. Then, I laughed which resembled Jack Nicholson's famous cackle - and then I cried some more. My emotions were one of hysterics and intense as if love from the core was running through my body and out on the other side. It is true what the others say: you don't know unconditional love until you have a child.
So to answer my friend's question. Yes, she'll be a great mother because like the women before her and the soon-to-be mothers of the world, we will all be the great mothers we hope to be and then some. We will rely on our instincts for those moments we don't know WHAT to do, we'll lean on a community of women to help us along the way, and we'll believe whole-heartedly in ourselves and turn inward for the answers.
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