An earnest and loving picture book that explains sperm donor conception in a two-mom family. (There are also nearly 30 other versions in this series, covering two-mom, two-dad, single-mom, single-dad, and mom-dad families that used embryo donation, dual egg and sperm donation, surrogacy, and more, which you can find at the Amazon link above. This is why I am tagging this entry for various family types and methods of family creation, although this particular title focuses on a two-mom family.)
A young boy named Hudson walks with his two moms to his first day of school. Along the way, the moms, both architects, point out a house that they designed. Hudson explains to readers that being an architect means using one’s imagination to create instructions, called “blueprints,” for a house.
At school, Hudson encounters a classmate who has a new baby sister. He asks, “Where did you get the baby?” and the child responds, “My mommy and daddy made her.” He later asks his moms if one needs a daddy to make a baby, and they tell him there are actually many ways to make a baby, including by using a donor, which is how he was made.
Making a baby requires two tiny parts made inside the bodies of grownups, an egg and a sperm, they explain, noting that usually women have eggs and men have sperm (“but not always”—a nod to trans and nonbinary identities). Hudson’s moms combined an egg from one of them with sperm from a donor (“a special helper who wants to help others grow their families”), which can come together to create a baby.
We then learn that the embryo grew in Mommy’s uterus (“like a cozy room right below my tummy”) until Hudson was ready to be born. We never learn which one of them provided the egg, which leaves room both for families that did reciprocal IVF and for those where one parent provided both egg and uterus.
Mommy further explains that sperm and egg have “special instructions” for how the baby will look, how tall they will be and “where all the parts should go.” Hudson smartly equates this with the blueprints that his moms create.
Importantly, Mama then tells him that although Hudson got some of his blueprints from the donor, “who you are is so much bigger than your blueprints. You have my smile and Mommy’s laugh and you love science just like your Grandpa.” That’s a critical thing to remember in families where one or more parents is not genetically connected to the child.
At the end, Hudson and his moms hug as they reassure him that love is how to build a family, and that he can always come to them with questions about how babies are made or about their family story.
This is a sweet book that may help some families find the words to begin having conversations about donor conception with their children. Potential readers should note that while the book is listed in online bookstores as “A (IUI/IVF/ICI) Donor Conception Story for Two-Mom Families,” there’s nothing in it specific to IUI/IVF/ICI. How egg and sperm get together is left vague. That’s not a criticism; in fact, it may be a strength. This is just a heads-up to guide you in what you may be seeking.
Hudson and one mom are White; the other has light brown skin.
See also Maisie’s Blueprints, a version starring a girl with two moms.
