Facts for Kids

Mother is a word for the woman who cares for and raises a child. A mother can be the person who gave birth, the person who raises a child even if she did not give birth, or a woman who helped by giving an egg so someone else could carry the pregnancy. People often call a mother mom, mama, or mummy. Words like "maternal" describe things about a mother, and "to mother" means to care for a child. A woman who is going to have a baby is called a mother-to-be, and the change of becoming a mother has a special name: matrescence.

A mother can also be a kind adult who acts like a parent. Who do you think of when you hear the word mother?

Surrogate mother is a woman who carries a pregnancy for another person or couple. Often the egg used to make the child comes from the intended mother or a donor, and doctors place the fertilized egg in the surrogate's womb using a medical method like IVF. The surrogate gives the pregnant body and time to grow the baby, but she may not be the child's genetic mother.

Surrogacy helps people who cannot carry a pregnancy themselves to have a child. The grown-ups who asked for the surrogacy usually become the child's parents after birth. What do you wonder about how babies grow before they are born?

Biological mother means the woman who provided the egg that helped make the child. If the egg and sperm join and grow inside a woman's womb, that is pregnancy. In people, pregnancy usually lasts about nine months while the baby grows. After birth, many biological mothers feed their babies breast milk, which helps give food and protection from some illnesses.

Being a biological mother is one way to be a parent, but not the only way. Some women who are biological mothers raise their children, and some do not. What would you like to ask someone who remembers being a baby?

There are different ways a woman can be a mother. She can give birth and be the baby's biological parent. She can become a mother by raising a child she did not biologically create, for example as an adoptive or stepmother. A woman can also help by giving an egg that is used with medical help and another woman carries the pregnancy.

These three paths—biological, non-biological, and surrogate—often share the same everyday work: feeding, teaching, and loving a child. Medical tools like in vitro fertilization, or IVF, can help some of these paths happen. Which way sounds most surprising to you?

Non-biological mother means a woman who is a mother but did not give the egg that made the child. Examples are adoptive mothers, who legally become the child's parent and raise them; stepmothers, who join a family when a parent marries; and foster mothers, who care for children for a while when they need a safe home. People also use the idea of an "othermother" for a neighbor, aunt, or family friend who helps raise a child.

These mothers do the everyday jobs of parenting—teaching, caring, and supporting. Sometimes a child has more than one mother who loves and helps them. Who helps care for children in your neighborhood?

Motherhood in LGBTQ+ families looks like many kinds of families you know. Lesbian and bisexual women may become mothers by having children earlier, using IVF, adopting, or fostering. Gay and queer men can become parents with help from egg donors and surrogates, or by adoption. Transgender women may become parents by adopting, fostering, or using stored sperm to make children with a partner. Right now, most transgender women do not carry pregnancies, though research about uterus transplants may change options in the future.

Some families find extra rules or harder steps when they try to adopt or use medical help, but many LGBTQ+ people raise loving families. What family stories have you heard that surprised you?