mother (n.)

mother is a good word. Use "mother" when you are referring to a woman who is a parent, but when appropriate use "mother and father" or "parent" to avoid associating all the responsibility for parenting with the mother. A person expecting a child is a pregnant woman or pregnant person, not a mother, unless she has other children. Medical science divides mothers into three categories: the genetic, the gestational, and the social mother; these mothers may be represented by as many as three different individuals—the one whose eggs are donated, the one who carries the fetus, and the one who mothers the child for life. Mothers may also be adoptive, biological, birth, lesbian, ovarian, step-, surrogate, and uterine—although the most popular word is still the unadorned "mother." See also pregnancy.