No longer are women offered a single route to motherhood via pregnancy and childbirth. Instead, women become mothers in a variety of manners, all of which are becoming more socially acceptable.
Mama in Many Ways
HOW IS THE ROLE OF “MOTHER” EVOLVING?
Motherhood is eternal, yet changing. Rather than taking a single path to motherhood, more women are becoming mothers through alternate routes, including surrogacy, adoption, and fostering. How is the role of "mother" evolving and diversifying?
Explore the Mama in Many Ways gallery to find out!
HEROES WORKING TO ADVANCE THE RIGHTS OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
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Marie Claudine Mukamabano is the founder and CEO of Kuki Ndiho Rwanda Orphans Support Project, an NGO dedicated to the healing of the lives of the thousands of orphans living in Rwanda today.
ART, WRITING, AND MULTIMEDIA FROM WOMEN AND MEN AROUND THE WORLD
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This photo series looks at a unique option offered by Washington State, USA to imprisoned mothers and their children.
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Lenelle Moise's poem leads us though a queer woman's thoughts and internal inquiet about the process of having a child.
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Margaret O'Brien offers this song as a tribute to her aunts and the maternal role they played in her life while her own mother was ill.
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This documentary short from Rachael Ouko interviews teen moms living in the Mathare Slums of Nairobi, Kenya, where teen motherhood is common.
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In this essay, Sarah Buttenweiser explores what the name “mother” means as an adoptive mother in an open adoption.
THOUGHT LEADERS PRESENT PROVOCATIVE, INNOVATIVE IDEAS
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Futurist Marina Gorbis explains how motherhood is influenced by social factors, and what the future of motherhood may look like.
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Tina Sharkey, former CEO of BabyCenter, discusses how motherhood and the idea of the "perfect mom" is changing, and what this means for families globally.
FRANK AND INSPIRING INTERVIEWS WITH 11 MOTHERS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
FICTION AND MEMOIR FROM CELEBRATED WOMEN WRITERS
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Blessing Musariri tells the story of Tinashe, a young Zimbabwean boy. When his mother takes Tinashe away with her in hopes of starting a new life, her young son must confront incomprehensible loss.
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Leila Aboulela tells the story of a pregnant woman who recently moved to a new city for her husband's job; she is often alone, and feels uncertain and unmoored as she awaits the birth of her baby.
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Sierra Leonian writer Aminatta Forna tells the story of a girl with a charismatic mother who was the favorite wife of her father, but also the target of judgments and criticisms from others in their community.
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Samina Ali tells about her medically dangerous labor and delivery, during which she almost died, and what she learned from her infant son during her long period of rehabilitation.
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Maggie Gee describes the growing pains she experienced as her daughter grew older and as she attempted to balance work and motherhood.
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Beatrice Lamwaka's "Butterfly Dreams" is the story of a young woman who returns to her mother after five years of being a child soldier.
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Valerie Mason-John tells the affecting story of a woman in Sierra Leone who lost many of her children and watched her country be torn apart by war and the search for blood diamonds.