Gina Trapani is best known as the founder of the Lifehacker blog, but also began a much more personal venture this year—her own family. She wrote recently about her and her wife’s path to parenthood in “How to Make a Baby” for The Magazine. When a piece begins, “Choosing a sperm donor is a little bit like setting up an Xbox avatar,” you know it’s worth a read.
New mom A wrote this week at Two Mothers McGill about her “Non-Biological Perspective” before, during, and after the birth of her daughter with partner T. She gives voices to feelings I’ve heard from many nonbio moms—worrying if she will bond with their child, being hurt by others’ comments about how much the baby is like her partner, thinking about when their daughter will someday meet her donor. Even if you’ve experienced or read about similar sentiments before, however, you should go read her post for the eloquence with which she expresses them.
Aleia Mims’ “Lessons from Infertility,” part of her “Authentically Me” series at her blog l.i.b.e.r.a.t.i.o.n. theory, is this week’s Post of the Week. She writes about her journey from comfort with not being a bio mom, to wanting to conceive with her wife, to her disappointment at not being able to do so.
Please welcome to the blogosphere Charlotte and Betsy, who recently launched one of the best-titled blogs I’ve seen in a while: Turkey Baster and Bottle of Wine. Their subtitle clarifies: “On being a queer, non-gestational parent.”
Five million babies around the world have now been born through in vitro fertilization (IVF), reported experts at a European conference this week. Not all of us lesbians create our families that way, of course (the technique is more often used by straight couples having trouble conceiving)—but since my spouse and I did (my egg, her womb), I thought it was worth a mention.
This week’s roundup is chock-full of superheroes and moms who rock (literally).
MeiBeck “Chino” and Maya Scott-Chung are lesbian moms raising a seven-year-old daughter. When they wanted to add another child to their family, but had trouble conceiving, they discovered that the only way they could get access to assisted reproductive services was to pretend that one of them was in a heterosexual relationship with their known donor (whom they had used to conceive their daughter).
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.) For same-sex couples wanting to have children, knowing where to begin can make a big difference. For couples starting their families through biological means, one new resource is the Family Building Options Web site, part of the Fertility Lifelines educational program created by pharmaceutical company EMD Serono. Despite
I’m still recovering from the holidays, so let’s be different and start with some celebrity news before diving into politics: Celebrity News Elton John and his partner David Furnish are now proud parents. “Elton John and David Furnish became first-time fathers on Christmas after welcoming a baby boy via a surrogate,” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has gone this year to biologist Robert G. Edwards, who developed the procedure of in vitro fertilization. Since Helen and I created our family this way, I owe him a debt of thanks.
