Marvellous mothers

I've always been fascinated by mothers. You know - the strength of feeling that comes with motherhood?

The feeling that could probably be summed up by this saying: "The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new."

I'll never forget being told by a friend (who was a national newspaper reporter) when he came back from the Mexico City earthquake, way back in 1985, that he'd always remember what the rescue services said about Mexican mothers.

He said that, when rescuers uncovered the maternity ward of a destroyed hospital, they found that all of the new mothers had instinctively flung themselves across the cots of their babies, to protect them from the falling debris. I've never been able to completely get that image out of my mind. The strength of the maternal instinct is something I've always wanted to write about, and celebrate.

So on today's phone-in I thought I'd ask listeners what they thought of MP Diane Abbot, who has said that West Indian mothers are the strongest mothers of all, because they'd "go to the wall for their kids".

You see, I think lots of diverse racial backgrounds would boast that they have the best mums!

For instance, my producer, John Baish, has an Armenian mum. He says they're the best, because they always put their children first. (The photo, by the way, is of me and John getting the programme underway!)

My guest, Una Loughrey, who runs The Link Foundation in Maidenhead, comes from an Irish Catholic background, very similar to me. We both reckoned Irish mums are the best, putting great stock in education. The sort of mums who nag you to do your homework as soon as you're home from the school bus!

And then there are Jewish mothers, who are said to be formidable.

There's a lovely Jewish proverb: "God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers".

But Magdalena rang in from Reading with a very poignant story. She was brought up in Yugoslavia and her mother abandoned her when she was very young. She's turned into a formidable mother herself, though, of two very high achieving daughters. "The mothering instinct does not come from the racial background," she said. "It's an instinct that either you have or you don't. No-one taught me. But I hope my daughters would think I have done a good job!"

If, after that, you're feeling a little sentimental - try out these well-known soppy sayings about mothers:

• "A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
• "Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible."
• "A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after."

Oh - I so agree with that one!