For the Love of Mothers
A mother's love is like none other.
We rise and rest on the hips of mothers.
We learn to speak from the lips of mothers…
When mothers are lifted up, the whole world rises.

This Sunday, she might get flowers. But mothers deserve so much more.
Especially here in the United States, motherhood is under threat. Birth rates have hit a record low — the U.S. general fertility rate dropped to 53.1 births per 1,000 women in 2025, the lowest ever recorded, down 23% since 2007, according to the CDC.
Costs are rising. And mothers everywhere are struggling to raise babies in a society that doesn't support them. Forty-three percent of American adults now name insufficient financial resources as the reason they aren't having more children.
The contrast with how mothers —and fathers— fare in other parts of the world could not be starker.
What the rest of the world gives a new mother
In much of the wealthy world, a new mother is given time to heal, bond, and recover.
In Estonia, paid leave stretches well over a year. In Sweden and Norway, parents are supported for months, not days.
In the United States, many women are back at work before their bodies have healed from birth.
It gets even harder
American mothers die in childbirth at roughly three times the rate of mothers in Sweden, Japan, Germany, France, the U.K., or the Netherlands. For Black mothers, the rate is closer to five times. And in states with strict abortion laws, more pregnant women are dying because they cannot get necessary medical care.
The World Health Organization has named the United States as one of only seven countries on earth where maternal mortality has risen this century.
American mothers are carrying an impossible burden.
Mothers are, in many ways, the hardest working humans on the planet. Often providing the lion-share of care for both young children and aging parents, it's likely that any mother you know could use more support.
Send flowers — and more
She'll love the flowers, of course. Then:
- Call her. Let her hear that you turned out okay.
- Sit with a friend who just gave birth and bring her a meal
- Tell your senator paid leave is not a luxury.
- Donate to a maternal health fund — especially one centering Black maternal health, where the gap is widest. Black Mama's Matter is a great organization to support.
Mothers deserve our deepest gratitude and our most expansive support.
At Venus Matters, we're honoring the women whose bodies built ours with 15% off this Mother's Day. Use MOTHERLOVE by midnight and give someone you love the support she deserves in bed and beyond.
Soft landings, always — for the women who gave us the landing of a lifetime.
With love,
Jules Cazedessus
Founder
Venus Matters is a luxury waterproof intimacy mat made in the USA, PFAS-free, with a 10-year waterproof guarantee.
Elevating bedtime since 2015.
- CDC NCHS — Births: Provisional Data for 2025
- CNN — US fertility rate dropped to another record low in 2025
- The Hill — Fertility rate drops to new record low: CDC
- World Population Review — Maternity Leave by Country 2026
- OECD Family Database — Parental Leave Systems
- Bipartisan Policy Center — Paid Family Leave Across OECD Countries
- Pamgro — Paid Maternity Leave by Country 2026
- Nordic Cooperation — Parental Benefit in Sweden
- CDC NCHS — Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2024
- Commonwealth Fund — Maternal Mortality in the United States, 2025
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — Study: Higher Maternal Death Rate in States With Abortion Bans
- Gender Equity Policy Institute — Maternal Mortality in the United States After Abortion Bans
- Healthcare Dive — More rural hospitals shutter labor and delivery units in 2025
- The 19th — Pregnant people in rural parts of the country are running out of places to give birth