Being a mother is lots of things. It’s enjoying the snuggles and sighs of your newborn infant; It’s long, grueling nights of hoping your baby will sleep for more than a few hours at a time; It’s playing the same games and reading the same stories over and over again; It’s sacrificing weekends with friends to be with your sick toddler; It’s rarely ever getting a thank you. It’s also often suffering in silence, going without to feed your kids, and having to jump through hoops to get any help. Society could do a lot more to support new mothers (hell, any and all mothers) and yet, the collective "we" seem to do a good job undervaluing them and taking them for granted.
Mothers are often criticized for how they raise their children, what they feed them, how they discipline, what schools their children attend, and whether they raise their kids with religion or not. They are constantly under an intense amount of scrutiny from strangers, the media, friends, other mothers, and even themselves. Then, as if the aforementioned wasn't daunting enough, they also have to contend with bigger issues, especially if they are minority mothers. White mothers, for example, don’t have to worry about the safety of their children to the same degree that mothers of color do. For example, most white moms don't worry that their children will get shot by police officers for wearing a sweatshirt or playing with a toy gun, but mothers of color with children of color, unfortunately and constantly, do. Mothers who are citizens don’t need to worry that they will be deported and their children, especially children born in the United States, will be taken from them. There's no denying that every mother struggles and her own sets of worries, but mothers of color or mothers in same sex relationships could (and do) have an entirely different set of struggles that our society only seems to cultivate.
As a society, there is much we could do to help not just some, but all mothers. There are changes we could be making and conversations we could be having that make mothers an inclusive, supported member of society, rather than a constantly scrutinized one. There's a start, society, so feel free to take the next step.