My life has been defined by womanhood and by motherhood. Feeling a new person grow within you and raising them to become an independent person is the greatest privilege and the greatest challenge. It weaves with my other accomplishments to form whom I have become. Being a parent should be that way, not an additional thing or an "add on" but a central theme that other passions revolve around.
Baby was four weeks old. I was a zombie, naturally. That's how it is after four weeks with a new baby. We were invited to a restaurant, a posh pub. Baby began to cry, and then to become frantic. My let down reflex went and I could feel the milk filling up the pads. So I did what my mama instincts said to do, I unhooked my nursing bra and fed baby. The restaurant was quiet again. No more crying baby, just a happily feeding baby. The woman to my left said I should be embarrassed. I said I was not, that this is how babies eat. Everyone else here is getting food, baby gets food too. The woman said she was embarrassed for me. To this day I am glad I did what I did. Boobs are boobs. If anyone has a problem with how human babies eat, that's their problem, they're the boob. If we could all relax about public breast feeding, that would lower the stress levels of mothers and babies. They should feel welcome and emotionally supported everywhere they go. Motherhood is challenging enough.
In species that reproduce sexually the relative vulnerability of the female during pregnancy, birth and motherhood is offset by chivalrous behaviour of males. In a modern society women need a great education and full choice of what they wish to accomplish in the lifetime, and that may or may not include motherhood. Yet because of this basic element in sexually reproducing species the society (males and females) will either become chivalrous (protective) of females or misogynistic/patriarchal. Thus both chivalry and misogyny/patriarchy become aspects of wider society directed at women yet carried out by both genders for personal gain.