maternity

[muh-tur-ni-tee]

noun

1. the state of being a mother; motherhood.

2. motherly quality; motherliness.

3. a section of a hospital devoted to the care of women at childbirth and of their newborn infants.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or for the period in which a woman is pregnant or has just given birth to a child.

2. for mothers during and after childbirth or for the care of their newborn babies.

   a maternity hospital.

3. for wear by pregnant women.

   maternity clothes.

maternity

/ məˈtɜːnɪtɪ /

noun

1. motherhood

2. the characteristics associated with motherhood; motherliness

3. (modifier) relating to pregnant women or women at the time of childbirth

   a maternity ward

Other Word Forms

• prematernity noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of maternity¹

1605–15; < Medieval Latin māternitās, equivalent to Latin mātern ( us ) ( maternal ) + -itās -ity

Example Sentences

Forbes marked another first when she became the first Scottish minister to take maternity leave, when she left to have her daughter Naomi in August 2022.

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A BBC Investigation in August reported Ms Upton had been banned from entering any of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust's mortuaries and maternity wards for keeping the bodies of babies at her home.

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While I was grateful for my maternity leave, I didn’t feel completely ready to return to work after four months.

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He said it was a priority in the trust's maternity and neonatal improvement plans.

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Becoming pregnant through IVF enables the same maternity rights as non-IVF pregnancies, but currently in employment law there are no legal rights when it comes to fertility treatment.

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