The first mothers knew how to take care of their babies after they were born. They did not have to read books to learn what to do. They had grown up seeing how other women cared for their babies. Each mother knew that she would feed her baby from her breasts and that it was necessary for her to always be there for her baby. Everyone else knew this too, and they made sure that nothing would interfere with the important task of mothering.

The first mothers did not feel separate from their babies nor did they want to be separated from them after they were born. They kept their babies with them all the time, nursing them with the sweet milk that came from their breasts, knowing that their milk contained the gift of life. They knew that the more a baby nursed, the more the milk would flow. They knew that the milk was the baby's milk, not their milk and that the baby knew when it wanted milk. They did not set up times when the baby could have milk or not have milk. They knew that babies could not live without their mother's milk and that they were dependent on their mothers for life.

The first mothers did not have to hide when they nursed their babies. Unlike so many women of today, the first mothers were not ashamed of their breasts or of the fact that their breasts produced milk. They were proud that they were women, that they had breasts that could give milk, and even more proud when their babies thrived on their milk. The men of their group were also proud of mothers. Women were not looked down upon by the men of a long, long time ago. The men saw women as equals. They respected the fact that women, unlike they, were the source of life. Everyone knew that without women there would be no people anymore because babies could not be born or live or grow without their mothers. And because the people cherished life, they cherished mothers. The people thought so much of mothers that many of them carried little statues of a mother with them all the time. That way they would never feel alone in the world even if, for some reason or circumstance, they were or felt lost. They knew that their connection to their mothers did not diminish them but was the root of their connection to each other and to all life.

The long ago people, besides carrying statues of mothers, also carried within themselves the goodness of their mothers. That was why they were good to each other and to themselves. They became good like their mothers because their mothers were good to them. All the people, including the men, behaved like mothers. They were all very nice to children, even if they were not their own. They did not hit, punish, abuse, or take advantage of children's smallness and vulnerability. They believed that children should be helped and protected because they were small and not as strong as adults. The people were also good to each other. They shared their food and their possessions, and they protected and took care of each other. They did not, as people of today who have jobs taking care of others, get paid for caring nor did they expect anything in return. They did it because caring was natural to their way of life. The people of long, long ago seldom did things alone. They shared the tasks of living and their lives. They did not feel alone in the world as so many people do today. Throughout their lives, from infancy to old age, they knew that other people were there for them just as they were there for others.

The first people owed their goodness to each other to the fact that each of them had a mother who had been good to them. Being human, it was natural for each mother to be good to her baby. Unlike other mammals, such as cats or dogs or lions or tigers, humans usually have only one baby at a time. This means that each baby has his mother all to himself and that each baby is special to his mother. A human mother can devote all her time and energy to her one baby, whereas a cat has to take care of a whole litter of babies. Of course, a human mother will only devote herself to her baby if she and all the people around her believe that caring for a baby is more important than anything else. That was how it was a long, long time ago when everyone thought that caring for a baby was the most important thing in the world, and they would make sure that a mother wouldn't have to do anything that would interfere in her being with her baby.

Today that isn't true. Lots of mothers put earning money, taking care of the house and their husbands, and having time for themselves before being there for their baby. This doesn't mean that the mothers of today don't like their babies or don't think that they are important. What it does mean is that, in our world, we don't believe that it is important for a mother to always be there for her baby. Obviously our government doesn't consider it very important, or they would find ways to make it more possible for mothers to stay at home and take care of their babies and children. Instead, they see helping mothers by providing them with maternity leave from their job, paid leave, or direct financial aid as violations of the principles on which our society is based.

As you can see, caring for a baby is more complicated for mothers of today than it was for the first mothers. It is complicated because we no longer, as a society, support mothering. We do not think that it is important for babies to have mothers who take care of them, at least not as important as maintaining and perpetuating an economic system that looks down on people who are poor and a social system that adheres to the belief that taking care of people is harmful and a threat to our way of life. Seeing that every mother gets the chance to take care of her baby isn't really American.

But it is even more complicated because even if a mother doesn't have to work to support her family, she may go back to work after her baby is born because of her career or because she likes working more than taking care of a baby or because she needs a separate life of her own. Well, at any rate, this wouldn't happen in the world of a long, long time ago because babies couldn't live without their mothers. But nowadays we've found ways of keeping babies alive without their mothers, so mothers have a choice. The long ago mothers didn't have a choice, so their heads didn't have to be bothered with anything more complicated than taking care of their babies. Maybe, head wise, mothers were better off then. It certainly was better for babies.

Now let's get back to what I was saying about humans having only one baby at a time. This means that babies don't have to share their mothers with other babies, and they can get the exclusive and special care that all human babies need to grow normally. This one on one relationship makes it easy for baby and mother to be one. But here again it gets complicated in our world. This perfect set-up gets spoiled by our cultural belief that too much care will spoil a baby. It's considered a bad thing for babies to be catered to because they might like it and become overly demanding and too dependent on their mothers and want them all the time and mothers have rights too and it's not fair that fathers don't have to take care of babies and it isn't fair to fathers if mothers breast-feed because fathers can't, and the babies as they get older won't be able to get along with people because they will be too attached to their mothers and used to always getting their own way and the mother and baby will stay in a symbiotic relationship and the baby when he grows up won't have a self or be independent and will be unable to go to school or get into a good college or get a good job, so maybe mothers should definitely not, or at least most of the time, or maybe some of the time, not give in to their babies or be too good to them or, at least, should show baby who is the boss and so it's probably a bad thing that humans have only one baby at a time and it would be better if we were like cats and had lots of babies at one time so then none of them could become spoiled and they could all be somewhat deprived and neglected and learn early in life that they were separate individuals and not special and then they could grow up too be self-sufficient and independent and go to college and get a good job so they wouldn't ever need anyone.

You can see how the simple, natural process of infant care can get pretty complicated when humans stick their imaginative and life-controlling brains into it. I think that the first mothers liked having only one baby at a time because they could take better care of them than they could if they had a lot of babies at once. The first mothers just took care of their babies in the way nature intended. They had no need to improve the process because the process fit the values of their culture. The first mothers could take their babies with them to do whatever they had to do each day. They didn't have bosses who wouldn't let them bring their babies to work. They could interrupt what they were doing if their babies needed their complete attention. They weren't paid by the hour, and they could never lose their job. They also didn't need a separate life from their babies because they didn't know about being separate. A mother's life was closely intertwined with all the other people of her group. They shared their food and their lack of food. They shared the good and the bad times. They shared their lives. It would be unthinkable and shameful for some of the people to have lots of food while others had none. People were equal in importance and in how they lived. There were no homeless people then nor were there wealthy ones. Everyone was part of something more than themselves. They were the group, and the group was not divided into classes, some of which were considered more worthy than others. Neither were men considered better than women, nor were adults, because they were productive, more valued than children. If anything, children were the most important because they were the future of the group. The people then, unlike people of today, not only spoke about this, they lived it. This was why they considered it so important that all babies should be cared for by their mothers for a long time. They knew that this was necessary if a baby was to become a real social being, a part of the group. They did not, as people do today, ration their time and themselves to their children. They gave the fullness of who they were so that their children would be whole.

The first mothers did not have babies one right after the other. This was partly because by nursing their babies in the natural way and for a long time they could not conceive right away. That was nature's way of ensuring that the mother-infant bond would continue for a long time after birth, long enough for a baby to fully and properly develop. But it was also because the people supported nature through their belief that all babies needed to have their mothers for themselves for a long time. And because mothers and fathers were responsible to the life they created, they did not have babies one right after the other, even if this meant that the father and the mother had to alter their sexual life together.

The fact that the first mothers cared for their babies in the way nature intended, and that they were supported by their group to do so, permitted the development of a wonderful and beautiful creation - the human being. The first people knew that a baby was not a separate person at birth.. They were aware that it was necessary for a mother to provide her baby with herself, or the baby could not become human. Nature, in its wisdom, had provided every baby with a mother so that, through the mother's presence, the baby could continue to grow as human. The mother, by caring for her baby for the appropriate time period and in the human way, ensured that her baby would become an appropriate human being; someone who would be sociable, intelligent, caring of others, and who would believe that every human life was special and important. You see, the difference between the people of a long, long time ago and those living now is that they all had real mothers, so they were all fully human.

Two: Mothers Are For Sissies!

Four: How The First Mothers Vanished