What's the neutral term for a woman who is not a mother?

Question

For married women, this scheme is very helpful.
For unmarried women, this scheme is not useful.

These sentences are clear because we have a term unmarried. I face difficulty describing the same thing whilst talking about the herb that increases the breast milk (of course, in mothers) but then it does not mean that women who are not mothers cannot use it for the breast enlargement.

[Herb] increases the quantity of breast milk in mothers but non-mothers can also take the herb as it helps multiplying the breast tissues resulting in a natural breast enlargement.

I'm not talking about a woman with infertility. I just want to refer a woman who has no issue/child. To make you all understand, I have referred her to as a non-mother. I don't want to use unmarried as it does not serve the purpose.

I can write ... "breast milk in mothers but women in general can also take the herb..." but then it's paraphrasing. I need the term, if available.

Answer 1

As Jolenealaska says, we have no such word. Non-mothers is perfectly acceptable and understandable; but as you discern, it’s sort of clunky.

But since you have already identified the category with which this category is contrasted, you need not give it an explicit name. Just write:

[Herb] increases the quantity of breast milk in lactating mothers, but other women can also take the herb ...

I’ve added lactating, since you presumably want to include mothers of older children in your second category.

Answer 2

Actually, English does have such a word. The clinical term to describe a woman who has never given birth is nullipara. The similar word nulligravida refers to a woman who has never been pregnant.

However, both of these words are rather uncommon outside a medical setting.

Answer 3

Doctors use the term "nullipar", from the Latin "nulliparous". It means "a woman who has never carried a child to term", as opposed to "a woman who has never been pregnant".

Usually encountered in the context of cancer patients, as in "The subject is a 54 year-old nullipar with no previous history of cancer or abnormal pap smear."

Answer 4

Childless

They were nearly always elderly divorced or childless women, with no children to raise or with grown families.

It's not 100% unambiguous, since it might mean that there were children but they have died, left home, or grown up: so it depends on the context. It seems to be used more in the phrase "childless couples" than "childless women".

Answer 5

The English language lacks the word you are looking for. It just doesn't exist. In other languages, it's right there, front and center. Not in English though. Others might be able to come up with a word, but they're jumping through hoops. The best option available within the common language is probably "girl" vs "woman".

Answer 6

As others have noted, there is no single word that means "woman who is not a mother". The conventional term to use to describe such a person is "non-mother". This is very commonly and routinely used.

Theoretically, all men are "non-mothers", but the term is normally understood to refer only to women.

A potential catch here is that in context, it looks like you are talking about women who have babies. "Mothers" means a woman who has one or more children, regardless of their age. That is, a woman with a 20 year old child is still called a "mother". If your intent is to say women who are breast feeding, then you would have to say "breast-feeding women" or "lactating women". The opposite would be "non-breast-feeding women" or "non-lactating women", which is getting rather awkward. At this point "other women" might be a good choice.