Women in ancient Egypt used honey, acacia fruit, and acacia leaves as natural spermicides. Controlling her pregnancies has always been in a woman’s best interest. They affected her health, and the babies added more work to their already busy days. Being a mother is a hard job. Pregnancy and giving birth were dangerous. They still are. Raising a child is a long-term commitment. A man and woman planning to start a family is like a chicken and hog to bacon and eggs. The chicken participates, but the hog is 100% committed. The man participates, but the woman carries the child for nine months.

Why would a woman do this? Is the urge to be a mother so strong that she will risk her life to have children. Yes, it is. All of us are alive because a woman carried us for nine months and birthed us in pain-which she sometimes subjected herself to multiple times.

So here is to the mother of my child. My mother and my wife. Happy Mother’s Day.