Lelach Rave, MD, FAAP – Executive Director
I had the pleasure of attending the opening ceremonies of the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma last week. It is such a gift that we have another state-of-the-art, beautiful, free-standing medical facility to care for the kids in our state. The event made me wonder – who was Mary Bridge? How many buildings have names on them, and we never know their stories? So, I went home and looked it up online. I learned that Dr. Albert W. Bridge, a pioneer physician in Tacoma, left money in his will for the establishment of a children’s hospital in honor of his mother, Mary, because she made significant sacrifices to help him through medical school.
How appropriate that this facility, named in honor of a mother, is opening right around Mother’s Day. Who are the people who made sacrifices for you? Whose hard work allowed you to flourish and achieve? Maybe your mother. Maybe a chosen maternal figure.
In pediatrics, one of the gifts we have is accompanying people across the threshold of parenthood. We get to watch as adults transform into mothers and fathers. We witness their evolution as they love and work to nurture their children. Some are better equipped for the task than others, but all face challenges unlike any they have encountered before. And while we celebrate the joy, we also see the strain, the uncertainty, and the quiet weight of responsibility that so many mothers carry. Our role is not just to care for children, but to support the people raising them, especially in those early, vulnerable years when confidence is still taking shape.
The history of Mother’s Day is a fascinating one. Two women sit at the center of its origin story: Ann Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe. Ms. Howe’s vision for Mother’s Day was rooted in her experiences during the Civil War. In 1870, she issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling for a gathering of women across nations to promote peace. She believed that mothers – those who nurture life – were uniquely positioned to resist the forces that destroy it.
Ms. Jarvis, also shaped by the Civil War, approached this work through public health and community building. In Appalachian Virginia, she organized “Mothers’ Work Clubs,” where women came together to improve sanitation and health in their communities. Later, after the Civil War, she organized a “Mother’s Friendship Day” to bring families from both sides of the conflict together to rebuild a sense of shared humanity. Both women understood something fundamental: when you support mothers, you strengthen communities.
Jarvis’ daughter would go on to establish Mother’s Day as we now know it, shifting the focus from collective action to individual recognition. Ironically, Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first national Mother’s Day in 1914, on the brink of World War I – just when the original call for peace might have mattered most.
Perhaps this Mother’s Day, we can hold both visions at once: honoring the individual mothers who shaped us and recommitting ourselves to the broader work of supporting those who are in the thick of raising the next generation.
For those of us in pediatrics, that support is not abstract. It looks like taking an extra moment to reassure an anxious new mother. It looks like recognizing when a parent is overwhelmed and offering not just medical guidance, but steadfast encouragement. It looks like advocating for and building systems of care that make it easier – not harder – to raise a child.
This Mother’s Day, I would ask each of us to take one extra minute with a parent – maybe the mother of a young child – to name what they are doing well. To say, out loud, “You’re doing a good job.” It is a small act, but in the uncertainty of early parenthood, it can be grounding in ways we may never fully see.
Whether we are leaving a legacy like Dr. Bridge, building healthier communities like Ann Jarvis, advocating for peace like Julia Ward Howe, or simply showing up with presence and compassion in an exam room, our work is part of a larger tradition: caring for those who care for children.
That may be one of the most meaningful ways we can honor mothers – not just in words, but in action.