So I began to imagine a world without mothers. Women are genetically and primordially designed to care for infants. We have the necessary equipment to feed them. Our brains are wired to hear their cries - wait - not just hear their cries but discern what each pitch means. Once you become a mother your chemistry changes. You become something else.

I can't stand to hear a baby cry unattended. I can't bear to see a child sick or injured, or sad even. My impulse is to reach out to them, care for them, love them. I am hardwired for this response, but I sure as hell wasn't "born" that way. It's almost a burden too much to bear. I feel the endless weight of the world's babies suffering. All mothers do. We have to train ourselves to filter it out so that we may tend to our own, special children.

A world without mothers would be a hardened world indeed. A world full of people who are merely shells of humans. Parenting a newborn changes you in ways that you can't even begin to comprehend. You become a hyperbeing, all senses on full alert - code red 24/7. It's a wonder that women choose to do it at all.

Thanks mom. Thank you all mothers. Thank you for kissing the boo boo's of the world, having the patience and strength to raise yourself from sleep at the faintest wimper of your baby. Thank you making the human race a little better. No, make that infinitely better.

And thanks to you, for proving with a little initiative and desire that men can be great mommies too.

Next time - the importance of fathers.