Interviewer: When you got out of your mother’s tummy, what was the first thing you felt?

Child: I felt that…I was where I wanted to be.

Stanislav Grof, M.D.: The mother is the first sample of humanity that the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 gets in touch with. The relationship you have with your mother will determine what worlds you’re going into and how much support you can expect from other people.

Mother: I’m gonna have to be tough on you!

Vera Cordeiro, M.D.: The intensity of the look of a loving mother to a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, and from the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 to the mother has a strength of cosmic magnitude. And it’s from this deep interaction, that the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 if formed.

Mother: It’s just this level of love that I have been blessed to experience. Someone can say, “You’re gonna love this 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥”. But no one could have prepared me for…this level and this depth of love. My goodness…To love these babies more than I love my own parents.

Mother: The second that we found out it’s like, “I have life inside of me”. And every fine detail, even my hips stretching and the lack of sleep at night, all these little things really just add to the love. When you get to hold them, it’s like, “I went through all of that just to hold you.”

James J. Heckman, Ph.D.: There’s the notion of human capital invested in the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, the greatest part of which is the mother’s. Her love is an important part of the economy, which typically is not fully recognized in the society. I don’t want to minimize the role of men. Children with absent fathers will grow up to much worse state.

James J. Heckman, Ph.D.: But I also think the mother is paramount. We know that, we’ve seen a lot of successful families where one mother alone, even though she doesn’t have the male, has been able to producevery successful 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.

Vera Iaconelli, Ph.D.: Children need to be taken care of, this is non-negotiable. Who does that is negotiable. Each culture does that in a particular way, ours is tending to have more fathers assuming the role of first caregivers.There is no problem with that, as long as the will of mothers and fathers are respected. That’s what 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren need. Taking care of a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 should be a choice, not an imposition.

Pia Robello Britto, Ph.D.: Being a mother really humbled me because I realized that everything I knew was from science and evidences in my head. But when I became a mother, it was my head, my heart and my hands, all had to work together.

Soucre: unicef.org