When we meditate, we might ponder questions such as who am I? What is my existence? What is my identity? How was I born? We tend to ignore these precious and fundamental questions to ask ourselves in the rut of life. There’s a list of conventional answers to these questions. However, actual answers are yet to be discovered. Every year, we grow with our age. As a mark of our growth, we celebrate our birthday with our friends, relatives, or family members, and we never try to answer pertinent questions, such as whether we should celebrate our birthday or celebrate the motherhood of our mother, who went through a painful process, who carried us in her womb for nine months.‘Mother’ (Mata: mother, mater, maternal, mate) is one of the oldest known words. The place of mother and father in our life is before God and Guru. A mother is a word given to a person who sacrifices and prioritizes her children’s well-being, growth, development, and welfare throughout life. A mother not just gives birth to a child or children but holds a lifelong commitment to love them, care for the child or children and show dedication and devotion without any prerequisites or conditions. A mother is a selfless, loving human whose warmth, sacrifice, and endearment know no bounds.
Besides, childbirth is an exuberant and blissful time for an expectant and her family when the baby’s existence is felt in the mother’s womb. The array of feelings during pregnancy and childbirth can range from unimaginable pain to unbelievable joy. There is no way to describe childbirth until one goes through it herself. After conception, the mother is taken to the hospital; the doctor suggests some tests to ensure the baby’s growth and the journey are smooth, safe, and secure. Therefore, the mother takes medicines as per her need and a prescription from a doctor. Some women who are not taken to the hospital are treated at home in rural areas. Miraculously, It is said that the mother and baby talk to each other, and they understand each other’s language. And that’s why their conversation continues without speaking. After three months, the mother follows all the prenatal nutritional rules and meticulously observes the medication routine; by the time of childbirth, the mother seems quite willing to do whatever the doctor says is best during labor and birth. Traditionally, pregnant women are surrounded by knowledgeable women, family, and close friends across time and cultures, and cultures who support the transition to motherhood with affirmation and great excitement. Pregnant women get treated; differently; they are given the best food and protected as much as possible from stress and overly hard physical work. She is encouraged to pay careful attention to her changing body, heart, mind, and growing baby. Family rituals ensure support during pregnancy and labor and the postpartum period. Pregnancy and birth are family events, and the care and support the pregnant women receive from people she knows and who know her well. Some women experience difficult times, having high blood sugar levels, swollen limbs, low back pain, and acidosis problems that prevent them from digesting food. But despite all the difficulties, mothers always keep their babies happy. Father and other family members take care of a baby in the womb and the mother. The baby’s reception is well prepared for the family at nine months. However, explaining maternal pain is still a challenge when a birth is still taking place at home in some areas. Women can die in many cases during childbirth due to some delicacies and complexities beyond human efforts. Still, she has the willingness to confront such life and deathsituations. There are hospitals in many places nowadays, but in 90% of the hospitals, the baby is delivered by Caesarean delivery. The mother has to endure all pains for the rest of her life. Here, one needs to ask a fundamental question: What is the role of a fetus that does not know anything about its birth and the pain the mother goes through all these journeys?
“We can celebrate every event, festival, ceremony, birthday with our parents. We all are aware of the role of parents in our birth, so tell me, can there be a birthday without parents? Saying goes, “God cannot reach every home, so he created a mother”. Heaven is at our mother’s feet. Greetings to God and mother. No matter how the times change or how modern it is, the “mother” remains a mother, even dutiful!”
After the birth of a toddler, it takes a lifetime of parenting to nurture and educate him. What is the role of that baby or child in the initial growth? Parents unselfishly do many things for the baby. They sacrifice their happiness to fulfill the dreams and aspirations of their children. They are keen to provide the best education, environment, and comfort for their children. They always feel their children should not go through the multifarious struggles and hardships, financial distress they have gone through. Now ask yourself, should your birthday be celebrated as your mother’s motherhood birthday or your birthday? Conscientiously,100% of individuals agree that a birthday should be marked as Mother’s motherhood birthday. For some people, birthdays have different meanings and interpretations. Birthday parties, cake cutting, and more are all part of it, but where are the parents? Nowadays everyone’s birthday is celebrated at the office too. We all are aware of the fact that the office is the place to work and perform our duties. If someone does a good job and accomplishes something academically or professionally, we can congratulate them and celebrate that moment. Everyone can be proud of someone who wrote a book, presented a dissertation, registered copyrights or patents, or did innovative academic work and contributed immensely to academic work or any profession they work in. It should be celebrated because we should never forget that our students and children imitate what we do in academics. Suppose we set an excellent example of celebrating academic and professional achievements instead of celebrating birthdays at offices or workplaces. In that case, students will undoubtedly get encouraged to follow in the footsteps of their teachers. They will strive to achieve and bring more accolades to institutes academically and professionally. However, we still wonder whether we should celebrate our birthday, or motherhood for the mother who sacrificed everything for us. Motherhood cannot be measured on any scale. Some children ask their parents, “What did you do for us?” They complain about not having the life they have imagined. They do not realize the sacrifices, adversities, sufferings, sorrows, and pains of their parents. Hers is a message for young generations that they must remember the journey before and after birth. We must not forget their sacrifice, their hardships, their struggles. If we have to celebrate our birthdays, it is undoubtedly a delightful moment, and we should be part of it. However, we should honor the sacrifices of our parents to respect their sentiments. Significantly, instead of celebrating our birthday, we should celebrate Motherhood’s birthday in the presence of parents without whom we would not exist. So from now on, we can celebrate every event, festival, ceremony, birthday with our parents. We all are aware of the role of parents in our birth, so tell me, can there be a birthday without parents? Saying goes, “God cannot reach every home, so he created a mother”. Heaven is at our mother’s feet. Greetings to God and mother. No matter how the times change or how modern it is, the “mother” remains a mother, even dutiful! We must adore and admire mother and motherhood. Greetings to everyone’s mother!
My mother is God’s creation and source of life for me. She is a sacred statue of selfless love, sacrifice, forgiveness, and patience. She is a guiding soul that helps me always go the right way and succeed in my life.
Footnote: No gesture of appreciation is ever enough when it comes to acknowledging our mother. Her selfless love and sacrifice are the precious of all gifts under the sun. I hope you will start celebrating your birthday as motherhood’s birthday to respect, admire and acknowledge the sacrifices she has made us reach where we are today. Let us celebrate our birthday as a mother’s motherhood birthday.
(The author is Head, Department of Mathematics Central University of Kashmir. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
