Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Hansard source

I want to speak today as a woman who's pregnant and learning in real time just how humbling this experience can be. Each trimester brings its own challenges and lessons. The first trimester can knock the wind out of you—the exhaustion, the nausea, the quiet worries you don't always say out loud. The second may offer a little breathing room, even as your body feels unfamiliar and your mind runs through a thousand questions a day. The third, as I'm currently learning, is all about discomfort and the realisation that your body is no longer just your own.

Along the way, there's a lot of advice. Most of it comes from a good place—from family, friends, colleagues, health professionals and people who care for you. Some is reassuring and some is very overwhelming, but it mostly reminds you that pregnancy and motherhood are shared experiences, carried across generations and communities. There's no perfect way to do pregnancy or motherhood; you've just got to do your best on any given day and give yourself permission to ask for help without guilt or shame.

To the mums across the country, whether you're pregnant, raising babies or teenagers, or carrying the weight of motherhood in other ways, I want you to know that I see you. I feel your tiredness, your stress, the physical aches and the emotional load that never really switches off. I feel the love that sits heavy in your heart and the strength it takes to keep showing up. Over the months and years ahead, I'll continue to turn up in this place as both a senator and a mother, carrying with me a deeper respect for the women who do this every single day—whether doing a night shift in a hospital, driving a truck on a FIFO mine or staying home and caring for the rest of their family—without applause. To all the mums out there, thank you. Your courage holds families and the country together. (Time expired)