Something like 60% of Americans believe that a mother is the most important thing that a woman can be. That's because we've been repeatedly fed that notion for the past 6-9 thousand years of patriarchy. Other than taking care of the man in her life, a woman's only social value is/was to reproduce. That's clearly not changed very much in our collective societal mind.

I love my son more than anyone in the world, but if I had to do it all over again, I'm not entirely certain that I would have a child. I think I did it in large part because I believed that was what I was supposed to do, and that's not actually a very good reason.

Keep on writing!