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MOTHER - 14 reference results
surrogate mother
surrogate mother, a woman who agrees, usually by contract and for a fee, to bear a child for a couple who are childless because the wife is infertile or physically incapable of carrying a developing fetus. Often the surrogate mother is the biological mother of the child, conceiving it by means of artificial insemination with sperm from the husband. In gestational surrogacy, the wife is fertile but incapable of carrying a growing fetus; the child is conceived by in vitro fertilization using the wife's eggs and her husband's sperm, and the resulting embryo is implanted in the surrogate mother's uterus.

Surrogate motherhood has raised complex ethical and legal issues, and lawsuits over custody after the child's birth have resulted from both types of surrogacy. In the highly publicized Baby M case (1986-88), Mary Beth Whitehead, the surrogate (and biological) mother, sued William and Elizabeth Stern, the baby's father and his wife, for custody of the child. Although the surrogate mother was not awarded custody in the Baby M case, she was granted visitation rights. Several European countries and a number of states have passed laws banning paid surrogacy.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
mother-of-pearl
mother-of-pearl or nacre, the iridescent substance that forms the lining of the shells of some fresh-water and some salt-water mollusks. Like the pearl it is a secretion of the mantle, composed of alternate layers of calcium carbonate and conchiolin. Among the chief sources are the pearl oyster, found in warm and tropical seas, chiefly in Asia; freshwater pearl mussels, which live in many rivers of the United States, Europe, and Asia; and the abalone of California, Japan, and other Pacific regions.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
mother goddess
mother goddess: see Great Mother Goddess.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
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Teresa, Mother
Teresa, Mother, 1910-97, Roman Catholic missionary in India, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, b. Skopje (now in Macedonia) as Agnes Goxha Bojaxhiu. Of Albanian parentage, she went to India at 17, becoming a nun and teaching school in Calcutta (now Kolkata). In 1948 she left the convent and founded the Missionaries of Charity, which now operates schools, hospitals, orphanages, and food centers worldwide. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
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Shipton, Mother
Shipton, Mother, legendary English prophetess. She was first mentioned in an anonymous pamphlet, published in 1641, which described her as having prophesied various events of the reign of Henry VIII and later. She rapidly entered the folklore of English literature, her fame being increased by the great fire of London (1666), which she was also alleged to have predicted. A life by Richard Head was first published in 1667, and an anonymous pamphlet of 1686 purported to identify her as Ursula Shipton (1488-1561) of Knaresborough, Yorkshire. A new version of her life in 1862, with additional prophecies, was discovered to be a forgery.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Mother Lode
Mother Lode, belt of gold-bearing quartz veins, central Calif., along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The term is sometimes limited to a strip c.70 mi (110 km) long and from 1 to 61/2 mi (1.6-10.5 km) wide, running NW from Mariposa. Popularly it is used to mean the gold-bearing area E of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and W of the Sierra Nevada. The discovery of alluvial gold on the South Fork of the American River led to the 1848 gold rush. Mark Twain and Bret Harte helped make the Mother Lode famous.
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Mother Goose
Mother Goose, name associated with nursery rhymes. Most English nursery rhymes have been ascribed to Mother Goose. The origin of the name is still a matter of dispute. Some trace it to a French collection of tales by Charles Perrault (1697) that had the subtitle Contes de ma mère L'Oye [tales of mother goose]. This name has in turn been traced to Queen Goosefoot, Charlemagne's mother (see Bertrada), who was a patron of children. Others claim an American origin in Mother Goose's Melodies, published 1719 in Boston by Thomas Fleet, whose mother-in-law was said to be Elizabeth Vergoose. A collection of Mother Goose rhymes was published by John Newbery in London in 1765. The subject matter of the rhymes has been linked by some scholars to actual events in English political history.

See The Annotated Mother Goose, ed. by W. S. and C. Baring-Gould (1970); study by S. K. Abbey (1967).

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Licensed from Columbia University Press
Mother Carey's chicken
Mother Carey's chicken: see petrel.
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Jones, Mother
Jones, Mother: see Jones, Mary Harris.
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Great Mother Goddess
Great Mother Goddess, in ancient Middle Eastern religions, mother goddess, the great symbol of the earth's fertility. She was worshiped under many names and attributes. Similar figures have been known in every part of the world. Essentially she was represented as the creative force in all nature, the mother of all things, responsible particularly for the periodic renewal of life. The later forms of her cult involved the worship of a male deity, variously considered her son, lover, or both (e.g., Adonis, Attis, and Osiris), whose death and resurrection symbolized the regenerative powers of the earth (see fertility rites). Although the Great Mother was the dominant figure in ancient Middle Eastern religions, she was also worshiped in Greece, Rome, and W Asia. In Phrygia and Lydia she was known as Cybele; among the Babylonians and Assyrians she was identified as Ishtar; in Syria and Palestine she appeared as Astarte; among the Egyptians she was called Isis; in Greece she was variously worshiped as Gaea, Hera, Rhea, Aphrodite, and Demeter; and in Rome she was identified as Maia, Ops, Tellus, and Ceres. Even this listing, however, is by no means complete. Many attributes of the Virgin Mary make her the Christian equivalent of the Great Mother, particularly in her great beneficence, in her double image as mother and virgin, and in her son, who is God and who dies and is resurrected.

See E. O. James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess (1959, repr. 1961).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Mother Goose

Fictitious old woman, reputedly the source of the body of traditional children's songs and verses known as nursery rhymes. Often pictured as a beak-nosed, sharp-chinned old woman riding on the back of a flying gander, she was first associated with nursery rhymes in Mother Goose's Melody (1781), published by the successors of John Newbery. The name apparently derived from the h1 of Charles Perrault's collection of fairy tales Ma Mère l'oye (1697; “My Mother Goose”). The persistent rumour that Mother Goose was an actual Boston woman is false.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Jones, Mary Harris
orig. Mary Harris known as Mother Jones

(born May 1, 1830, Cork, Ire.—died Nov. 30, 1930, Silver Spring, Md., U.S.) Irish-born U.S. labour organizer. She was brought to the U.S. as a child in 1835. In 1867 she lost her children and husband (an ironworker) in a yellow-fever epidemic in Memphis, Tenn.; four years later she lost all her possessions in the great Chicago fire. She turned for assistance to the Knights of Labor, which led to her becoming a highly visible figure in the U.S. labour movement. She traveled across the country, organizing for the United Mine Workers and supporting strikes wherever they were being held. At 93 she was still working among striking coal miners in West Virginia. She actively supported legislation to prohibit child labour. She was a founder of the Social Democratic Party (1898) and the Industrial Workers of the World (1905). Her autobiography was published in 1925. She died at the age of 100 and was buried in the Union Miners' Cemetery in Mount Olive, Ill.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Great Mother of the Gods
or Cybele

Cybele, terra-cotta statuette, from Camirus, Rhodes, early 5th century BC; in the British Museum, elipsis

Deity of the ancient Mediterranean world. Her cult originated in Phrygia in Asia Minor and spread to the Greek world, where she was identified with Rhea. It reached Rome by the 3rd century BC and became a major cult during the empire. Known by a variety of local names, Cybele was venerated as the universal mother of gods, humans, and animals. Her lover was the fertility god Attis. Her priests, the Galli, castrated themselves when they entered her service, and on her festival day they spattered their blood on her altar and her sacred pine tree.

Learn more about Great Mother of the Gods with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
NSW: Mother jailed for shaking baby to death
Jul 03, 2009; NSW: Mother jailed for shaking baby to death EDS: Please note language in par 2 By Margaret Scheikowski SYDNEY, July 3 AAP - A...
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What Women Want Today: Sam's Club(R) and Working Mother Teamed Up to Ask Moms 'What's On Your Mind?'.
Jun 29, 2009; BENTONVILLE, Ark., June 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Working Mother magazine and Sam's Club teamed up to honor 30 Working Mothers...
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Devoted son's plan to kill his frail mum; KILLER DETAINED AFTER SUFFOCATING MOTHER WITH CUSHION.
Jun 30, 2009; Byline: GARRY WILLEY A DEVOTED son who killed his frail and elderly mother has been detained in a secure hospital for treatment....
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Gran gets custody of Jacko children; Singer's mother will care for them till August ... but search goes on for a will.(News)
Jun 30, 2009; Byline: Paul Harris MICHAEL Jackson's mother was granted temporary custody of her three grandchildren yesterday in the first of a...
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Should mothers have the right to breastfeed publicly?
Jul 05, 2009; Vox Pop In a survey for 'Mother and Baby' magazine 60 per cent of mothers said they feel frowned on if they try to feed their...
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