A Mama's Love

     In men's groups I've lead I have told the men that as a father they will never love their child as much as the mother. Some men have said that they loved their child just as much as the child's mother. I told them it was impossible because the mother has a nine month head start on them. The mother is dedicated to and loves that child in ways a father will never know. The very first morning that she vomits with morning sickness she dedicates herself to that child. And every day after that when she vomits she dedicates herself to that child just that much more. And then comes the day that she feels her child within her wiggle for the very first time and a great expression of awe, and wonder, and love for that child comes up all upon her face. It is an expression and a feeling that only a mother can know. And every time that child moves within her from then on, she finds even more and more love for that child. At the end of her pregnancy just before birth she has by then given that child all the love she has. When birth comes and that just born child is given to her for the first time, with her arms around it and hers fingers touching her child, that moment to her is shear delight upon delight that nothing can compare. Yes, when a father thinks he loves his child as much as the mother he can not even come close. There is something about the relationship that develops in that nine months which we men will never know the depth of. There is a bond between that mother and her child that will last the rest of the mother's life, as an invisible umbilical cord, called 'A Mama's Love'.