As we celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday, we honour all forms motherhood comes in, because as Oprah Winfrey once said, "biology is the least of what makes someone a mother". And there are countless women who never give birth, but who've made amazing mothers and/or mother figures.
Below, we highlight moms via adoption, surrogacy and foster care.
Adoption
Mother of two, proudly via adoption, Sharon van Wyk said after her seventh miscarriage, she switched her focus to the legacy and responsibility of parenting a child, irrespective of genes.
"Being a mother is an all-encompassing love for my children. I love them so much I'd lay down my life for them. To me it's about raising them to the best of my ability, so they are well adjusted, emotionally intelligent adults, who contribute positively to our society. That for me is being a mother and it means so much more than a strand of DNA and a birth experience," she previously told HuffPost.
And hers is an experience shared by many adoptive mums across the globe.
Surrogacy
After struggling to conceive in her early thirties, Alex Kuczynski, author of "Beauty Junkies", welcomed her son through a gestational surrogate.
"He is our most vivid dream realised — the embodiment of the most blindly powerful force in the universe, brought to life the only way he could be. With a little help," she wrote to The New York Times.
Foster Care
"I'd rather these sweet babies know my love than never know it," said foster mum Rachel Hillestad, who has fostered more than 70 children.
"It's absolutely criminal that a two-year-old sits in a social worker's office for two days in dirty clothes because I'm afraid I'd get too attached. I got attached. Getting attached has been the greatest pleasure and honour of my entire life," she wrote in a Facebook post.
HuffPost wishes all mums a happy Mother's Day!