The Most Powerful Thing a Woman Can Do

I came across an Instagram post the other day from a new first-time mother. In the post she made the claim that “giving birth is the most powerful thing a woman can do.” My reaction was complicated—a mix of jealousy, sadness, anger, and eager agreement—and I’ve been chewing on that sentence for weeks now.

My question is this: if “giving birth is the most powerful thing a woman can do,” what does that mean for those women who can’t have a child? What about those who CHOOSE to not have children—are they less powerful, less Woman than those who do? Are we incomplete? I know women who have walked away from years of infertility and loss and CHOSE to be child-free—something so brave I personally can’t imagine doing.

I have spent the last couple years fighting the cultural narrative that childbearing is the utmost purpose of a woman. And the belief that I will not be fully woman until I have borne a child. That I will be more loved by my family, of more use in society if I can bear children. This sounds so antiquated, but I think it’s a belief that is still alive and well today. It’s in our bones.

I don’t question that for the author of that post, giving birth is the most powerful thing that SHE has ever done. I know enough about pregnancy & birth that I won’t question that it IS powerful.

But perhaps it is just one of many powerful things a woman can do.

This feels like something I’m going to keep chewing on. What are your thoughts?

Does the statement ring true for you?

What’s the most powerful thing YOU have done in your life thus far?