A mother
is the natural or social female parent of an offspring.In
the case of a mammal such as a human, the mother gestates
her child (called first an embryo, then a fetus) in the
womb from conception until the foetus is sufficiently well-developed
to be born. The mother then goes into labour and gives birth.
Once the child is born, the mother produces milk, a process
called lactation, to feed the child.In non-sexual
organisms, "mother" can sometimes be used to mean
"parent"; in the case of single-celled organisms
that reproduce by fission, the mother is a cell that divides
to produce "daughters".A mother may be
able to receive ante-natal care during her pregnancy to
assist her in several arising issues.Mothers typically
have a very important role in raising children, and the
title mother can be given to a woman other than a biological
parent who fills this role. This is most commonly either
an adoptive mother or a stepmother (the biologically unrelated
wife of a child's father). Nowadays, with advances in reproductive
technologies, the function of biological motherhood can
be split between the genetic mother (who provides the ovum)
and the gestational mother (who carries the pregnancy),
and in theory neither might be the social mother (the one
who brings up the child).The term mother can also
refer to a person with stereotypical traits of a mother
such as nurturing and other-centredness.Familiar
or colloquial terms for mother in English are:mum
or mummy, usual in the UK, Australia, and parts of Canada;
mom or mommy, in North America (especially the U.S.), and
in the Midland areas of England; especially the Black Country.
mam or mammy, in parts of North Wales, the South Wales valleys
, Ireland, Northern England and The Netherlands;
mama and ma, in parts of Latin America and other Spanish-speaking
cultures
In many European languages, similar pronunciations apply;
maman in French, mamma in Italian, or mama in Russian. In
many south Asian cultures, the mother is known as amma or
oma or ammi, or variations thereof. The "M" sound
seems to be near universal to the word mother in many different
languages; this is thought to be related to one of the first
sounds an infant learns to control, the smacking of its
lips together as it comes off the breast. (See breastfeeding.)
Many times these terms denote affection or a maternal role
in a child's life.In some
societies, single motherhood, the state of being an unmarried
mother, is treated as a serious social issue
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