Paul uses the reflexive pronoun ἑαυτῆς/heautēs (her own
) to qualify the noun children
: they are not just her
children (i.e., entrusted to her care), but her own
children (i.e., her own offspring). Although the reflexive pronoun can have the weaker meaning of her
(not her own
), it probably has the stronger meaning here.1,2
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.