There is no other time in a woman's life when she needs to be quite as smart as when she is looking after young children.

Working mothers become masters of time management.

There are changes in the brain (during pregnancy and early motherhood) ? concrete, measurable changes, and later, the way we think and behave is changed.

Motherhood is an especially powerful experience because it involves learning under high-stakes conditions, which is just the sort of learning that drives change in the brain.

Empathy frequently informs our earliest days with our infants as we try to figure out what they need, how to comfort and satisfy them.

Guys were knocked down time and time again, but kept getting up to do what had to be done to keep us alive. It's a tough crew, but the guys were choked up. We were learning of people dying.