I demand for the unmarried mother, as a sacred channel of life, the same reverence and respect as for the married mother; for Maternity is a cosmic thing and once it has come to pass, our conversation must not be permitted to blaspheme it.

The respect and protection of woman and of maternity should be raised to the position of an inalienable social duty and should become one of the principles of human morality.

I think that in the cultural imagination, motherhood has a primacy that fatherhood just doesn't; and that's not to say that there aren't many fathers who are active and engaged and for whom that is their life's passion. But somehow, in the imagination, there's something different about maternity.

Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.

Every time a woman leaves the workforce because she can't find or afford childcare, or she can't work out a flexible arrangement with her boss, or she has no paid maternity leave, her family's income falls down a notch. Simultaneously, national productivity numbers decline.

As the father of two daughters, the ongoing struggle for women's equality is very personal for me. That's why it has been an honor during my time in Congress to support women's rights by advocating for reproductive rights, equal pay, access to paid maternity leave and quality child care.

The system in Sweden is great because you get free healthcare and free education; someone who doesn't have a lot of money can become a doctor or lawyer. There's good paternity and maternity leave - the U.S. is probably the only civilised country in the world that doesn't give parents anything.

I would love to design a maternity clothing line. It is so hard to find stylish clothes for pregnant people... I would say 99 percent of the clothes I wore were not maternity because I couldn't find anything I liked.

I envisage there being absolutely no regulation whatsoever - no minimum wage, no maternity or paternity rights, no unfair dismissal rights, no pension rights - for the smallest companies that are trying to get off the ground, in order to give them a chance.

No woman in maternity confinement can have stranger and more impatient wishes than I have.

Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.