I mean by motherhood not only child-bearing, but the care of babies." "The care of babies involves education, and is entrusted only to the most fit," she repeated.
"Then you separate mother and child!" I cried in cold horror, something of Terry's feeling creeping over me, that there must be something wrong among these many virtues.
"Not usually," she patiently explained.

"You see, almost every woman values her maternity above everything else.

Each girl holds it close and dear, an exquisite joy, a crowning honor, the most intimate, most personal, most precious thing.

That is, the child-rearing has come to be with us a culture so profoundly studied, practiced with such subtlety and skill, that the more we love our children the less we are willing to trust that process to unskilled hands--even our own." "But a mother's love--" I ventured.
She studied my face, trying to work out a means of clear explanation.
"You told us about your dentists," she said, at length, "those quaintly specialized persons who spend their lives filling little holes in other persons' teeth--even in children's teeth sometimes." "Yes ?" I said, not getting her drift.
"Does mother-love urge mothers--with you--to fill their own children's teeth?
Or to wish to ?" "Why no--of course not," I protested.

"But that is a highly specialized craft.