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"That Only a Mother" is a 4000-word short story by Judith Merril, about prospective parents who are worried that their baby might be a mutation. The story was first published in the June, 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

A soldier’s wife is pregnant, and worried about stories in the media about too many mutated children being born, and about parental infanticide, mostly carried out by the fathers. Her husband is stationed abroad when the baby is born, and she reports with relief that the baby is normal. Then the baby starts talking at an unusually early age, and by the time the father comes home, the baby is 10 months old, but talking like a 4 year old. The father goes into the baby’s room to see his child for the first time, but is astonished to see that the baby has no arms or legs, and he realizes that his wife had simply blinded herself to this unpleasant fact.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 10 (1948).