Every Woman a Mother

Motherhood is a high calling for all women — whether single, married, fertile or infertile

In an August 2013 TIME feature, "The Childfree Life: Having It All Without Having Children," writer Lauren Sandler introduces a woman named Laura Scott. At age 14, Scott decided never to have children. She describes her mother as "bone tired," working long hours while raising Scott and her brother. It was a lifestyle Scott didn't want to mimic.

"My main motive not to have kids was that I loved my life the way it was," Scott explains.

Now at 50, Scott is married, has enjoyed a career as an author and filmmaker — currently working on a documentary called Childless by Choice — and says she is "fulfilled."

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