maternity

Noun

• the quality of having or showing the tenderness and warmth and affection of or befitting a mother
  • the girl's motherliness made her invaluable in caring for the children
    

• the kinship relation between an offspring and the mother

• the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her uterus

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  motherliness , maternalism , maternal quality , motherhood , pregnancy , gestation