Motherhood, on the social podiumA few days ago a famous Spanish singer said that she is afraid of becoming a mother, because she does not want to lose her freedom. Honestly, I am not surprised. With all those things that we have not been told (or that are taboo) about motherhood, the most logical thing to do is to be afraid of it.
There are many things that go unsaid about this topic and that you only find out when you become pregnant. For example, you will wake up many nights when the twins come up, and that you were finally starting to overcome insomnia. Few people tell you that your sense of smell becomes a superpower and everything starts to disgust you, even that cologne you loved so much.
The doctor doesn't want to tell you that there are 18-hour deliveries... And many more. And no one, absolutely no one, wants to admit that your hormones are on such a trip that even a video of Donald Trump awarding an honorary degree to a boy with a disability will make you cry more than "A Walk to Remember."
Secrets about motherhood
But they also don't tell you about the indescribable sensation of noticing your baby's first kicks, which timidly catches your attention. No one tells you that your mother and your mother-in-law will share with you a wisdom that comes from years of accumulated experience and affection.
Few will tell you about the lump in your throat when your father looks at you with a gesture that mixes joy and nostalgia, at what moment his little daughter has become a mother? The doctor keeps as part of the professional secret the smile that escapes your husband when he is told he is going to have a baby and hears the heartbeat of his baby.
Freedom and motherhood
Motherhood will undoubtedly take away your freedom of movement, even to tie your shoes. But it will make you aware at a higher level of the true freedom, the one for which men give their lives. A freedom that goes beyond doing what you want, because it becomes loving what you do.
It is a paradoxical freedom (God has a strange sense of humor) in which all the discomforts of pregnancy are transformed into a more and more determined yes: yes to life; yes to a future with hope; yes to realizing that pregnancy should not be romanticized or demonized, it must be lived to know that there are many things that we have not been told, but that by becoming a mother the concepts that we change take on their true meaning.
Motherhood denounces the injustice we commit by reducing ourselves to feelings and poor material freedom. Being a mother opens the door to a generosity and dedication that are far removed from the servility and subordination that many say motherhood is. But of course, if they don't tell you about it, it's normal to be afraid of it.
Therefore, it is up to us to remind the world what it really means to be a mother. And our life, our future, is at stake. As the Pope Francis’ January 1, 2019: "A world that looks to the future without a maternal gaze is short-sighted (...). A world in which maternal tenderness has been relegated to a mere sentiment may be rich in things, but not rich in the future."
