On March 8th the world celebrates and advocates for the equal rights and freedom for all girls and women. We celebrate the importance of women, their accomplishments, their role as mothers, daughters, leaders, doctors, stay-at-home-moms, single women, married women, childless-by-choice women, and the rights and respect every woman deserves for simply being human. As a Psychologist specializing in Maternal Mental Health and Wellness, I see my work as one small facet of this larger worldwide movement.
However, on March 8th 2012, the global significance of that day wasn’t on my mind. At 6:32AM that morning, I became a new mother as I held my precious beautiful baby girl for the first time. “A trifecta of womanhood,” I could have shouted afterward, if I weren’t exhausted from the previous 24 hours of contractions. It had been a difficult week as my little one was 5 days past her due date, and I was dreading the possibility of having to be induced.
Six years later, as I reflect on the coincidence of becoming a mother to a daughter on International Women’s Day, I am filled with joy, hope, and also a little sadness. I am so proud of the little girl by baby has grown into, yet I feel sad that the baby I once knew and cared for has gone away and lives only in photos and videos. My hope for her and her sister is that they grow into girls and women who know their value and accept nothing but equal rights and fairness for themselves and for women all over the world.
