Red Magazine has a feature this month about alternative routes to parenthood. From Melanie and her husband who have surrogate twiblings born five days apart, to gay dads with twins created with the same egg donor but each of their sperm (something we actually see quite a lot of), Kate Bussmann shows just how much is now possible, and the positive impact that increasing diversity is having.
Natalie talks about our experience on the ground of working with non traditional families and says:
“I’m constantly surprised by how many variations there are on having a child, the technologies available and the situations people get themselves into… Gay families are obviously different, so they are inevitably having those conversations with children and developing the language. I think it’s helping heterosexual couples deal with some of those issues, because they can see same-sex couples dealing with it in such a positive way. We have experienced a real cultural shift, particularly with donor conception – 20 or 30 years ago, heterosexual couples were told it was best never to tell the child. Now everyone is encouraged to be open and treat it as a positive thing. It’s a complete revolution in thinking. “
The article has a positive message, with stories including that of Fiona O’Driscoll of Surrogacy UK whose surrogate is now ‘Auntie Kate’ to her kids, and research from Stonewall which shows that children with same sex parents are just as likely to be happy as any others. It explores how gay parents are helping to push some positive trends, and how language is evolving fast to keep up.
It’s great to see such a positive piece, which really does reflect what we see on the ground every day. As Kate Bussmann says so eloquently: “And of all the parents I spoke to, gay or straight, with donors or surrogacy, the stories were almost entirely positive. They’re proud of forging their own version of ‘normal’ and more than one of them described the ‘richness’ that comes with having all those extra people in their lives.”
Amen to that.
You can read the Red feature in full here
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