There’s nothing like a mother’s love. They care for their children from the moment they are in the womb through adulthood, providing them with wisdom and guiding them toward happiness.

Whether you’re a mom or an expectant mother, celebrate motherhood with these seven prayers and blessings. Find encouragement in words that will encourage a mother through birth, difficult pregnancies, nursing, welcoming children into the world, and the struggles of day-to-day child rearing. Read these prayers and blessing for mothers who need strength, hope and inspiration.

A Blessing from Mother to Child

From the moment of birth I have held you to my breast.
Nourished you with a love that was both a feast, yet more often a simple meal.

In some small way, remember these moments together.
May you be blessed as you move out of my arms and into the circle of others.

And may this experience of love continue to feed you all the days of my life.

A Blessing for Expectant Mothers

Remember always, your body is sacred ground.

Your roots are strong and the sun holy.

The gardeners who came before—

Mother, grandmother, great-grandmother—

Tilled your soil with the compost of their lives.

And now, you hold the seeds.

Plant them deeply in the furrow of this land.

May what comes to you as flower

One day ripe into fruit.

And in your final years,

May they return as shade.

Dear God, Bless All Mothers

In this intense nine months, when mothers-to-be are realizing that their life is about to change forever, bless them God, because they feel alternately elated and alarmed. Help each mother-in-waiting to understand that she has been carefully chosen, by both you and by her baby, to guide it through its early years on planet Earth. Let her know that she will never be alone in the process. Help her to remember that her baby is your own perfect creation, just as she, herself, is your own perfect creation.

Thank you God, for making each of your creations uniquely perfect in its own way.

Amen

For Nursing Mother…

God, you who nurture and cherish us,

nourish my child with my milk (this food).

Strengthen our love for one another,

from this day forth and forevermore.

Amen.

For a Difficult Pregnancy

Creator God,

Comfort the mother who waits anxiously for her baby’s arrival.

Through her challenging pregnancy bring peace.

Help her to relinquish control, trusting that you formed this child within her womb and will watch over this little one until birth—and beyond.

Renew her strength for the days ahead.

And in your perfect timing, deliver this child safely into her waiting arms.

Amen.

To Know Thy Child

Creator God,

Give me the patience and wisdom to truly know my son.

To be present for him through all of life’s joys and trials.
To understand his desires and needs.

To love him fully, yet allow him to live his own life.

And when I grow weary,

I surrender this work of parenting to you.

Renew my spirit so that I might begin each day as the first.
Amen.

From a Parent to a Child

Creator God,
We pray that our son will live his life with concern for the world around him.

With his birth we are reminded of the possibility for goodness in a world that is often filled with suffering.

Help us to be a part of the healing—renewing our commitment to repair the path ahead for his sake and for the sake of God’s children.

Amen.