Photo by Fas Khan

Across the animal world, we observe shared practices of welcoming and nurturing the young (Narvaez and Bradshaw 2023). Sometimes the offspring is encased in a shell, sometimes in the uterus, but in every case the offspring is held in a body of love—first from mother, then from the kind attention of others who move in to care and guide the newborn—father, grandmother, sibling, midwife.