Motherhood is an especially powerful experience because it involves learning under high-stakes conditions, which is just the sort of learning that drives change in the brain.

There are changes in the brain (during pregnancy and early motherhood) ? concrete, measurable changes, and later, the way we think and behave is changed.

Motherhood has completely changed me. It's just about like the most completely humbling experience that I've ever had. I think that it puts you in your place because it really forces you to address the issues that you claim to believe in and if you can't stand up to those principles when you're raising a child, forget it.

There is no other time in a woman's life when she needs to be quite as smart as when she is looking after young children.

Empathy frequently informs our earliest days with our infants as we try to figure out what they need, how to comfort and satisfy them.

Working mothers become masters of time management.