Giving Birth to Myself.

          Last week, we celebrated Mother's Day, and we shall remember that Motherhood comes in all different and beautiful ways. Happy Mother's Day to Cisgender Mothers, Transgender Mothers, Intersex Mothers, Gender Queer/Fluid/Non-Binary Mothers, Straight Mothers, Lesbian Mothers, Bisexual Mothers, Pansexual Mothers, Asexual Mothers, White/European Mothers, Asian Mothers, Latina/Latinx Mothers, Black Mothers, Native/Indigenous Mothers, Biracial Mothers, Immigrant Mothers, Mothers with Physical/Mental Disabilities, Sick Mothers, Passed Mothers, Mothers in all Shapes and Sizes, Grandmothers, Stepmothers, Mothers with Adopted Children, Mothers who have lost Children, Mothers-To-Bes, Mothers with Strained Relationships with their Children, Teen Moms, Drag Mamas, Sugar Mamas, and Those Who Yearning to be Mothers...etc. There can be so much more to Motherhood. We shall celebrate all of that !

          Yet one Mother's Day post online not only caught my attention, but it personally touched me as a Trans woman who have not and will not be able to give birth physically.
The tweet reads...
"Happy Mothers Day to all the Queer and Trans people who had to Give Birth to Themselves."
          It's true. I did give birth to myself. Not only that, I'm teaching my mother how to give birth as well. It's a metaphor challenging the traditional definition of "womanhood" and what it means to be a "woman". I gave birth to myself when I've embraced my femininity as a trans woman, when I've given myself the freedom to be who I really am, when I came out of the closet. And I'm also helping my mother who suffers from internalized misogyny and transphobia to not only accept who I am, but also herself as a woman.

          In our society, it is difficult to be a woman, to be feminine, to take pride in our womanhood, in our motherhood. But we are here, together, celebrating motherhood, even when it means to be grateful to ourselves for liberating our own identity, for self-care, self-love, and self-empowerment.