Mother-in-chief
A lot has been said about the fact that we are on the brink of electing the first woman to be President. But I have been thinking more about electing the first mother.
Motherhood can be defined in as many different ways as there are people on this planet. But no matter the form, it provides a perspective and experience that none of our previous presidents can lay claim to.
This gap matters. The democracy our Founding Fathers created all but shut down our ability to tap into what mothers could bring to the table. Throughout our ensuing political experiment, those in power have kept motherhood at the margins. The result is a complete blind spot to one of our most potent sources of innovation, creativity, and action — moms.
My favorite part of being a midwife is helping activate and mobilize women, and becoming a mother is such an accelerant to this process. Whether it is claiming control of our reproductive lives, growing a human inside of us, navigating our healthcare system, opening up our bodies to give birth, or gazing down at our babies during a 3am feed and imagining their future, becoming a mother transforms how a person sees the world and participates in society.
As our children grow and motherhood finds its place in the greater context of our lives, it continues to heighten our ability to understand certain problems, deepen our resolve to find solutions, and sharpen our skills to get the work done.
Hillary brings many other facets of herself, a ridiculously impressive resume, a strong platform, and boundless passion to the White House. She will fight for mothers and all parents — working on paid family leave, quality maternal and reproductive healthcare, affordable childcare, and much more — to unleash the potential of more moms across all sectors of our society. And she will do it with the unique resolve, resilience, and resources shaped in part by her own journey to and through motherhood.
I’m ready for her to be our Mother-in-Chief.