‘It's a bit too much fathering this seed’: the meaning-making of the sperm donor in Italian lesbian mother families

Lingiardi, Vittorio; Carone, Nicola; Morelli, Mara; Baiocco, Roberto

doi:10.1016/j.rbmo.2016.06.007

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Lesbian mothers who started their families through donor insemination wanted to experience pregnancy and the birth of the child (Chabot and Ames, 2004; Lingiardi et al ., 2016). The lesbian mothers in Goldberg and Scheib's (2015) study also had concerns about the cost and the complexity of adoption, the potential problematic background children may come from and the possibility of encountering discrimination and stigma during the adoption process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gay fathers’ motivations for and feelings about surrogacy as a path to parenthood

et al. 2017

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STUDY QUESTIONWhy do gay men choose to start their families through surrogacy?SUMMARY ANSWERMost fathers chose surrogacy because they considered adoption to be a less desirable and/or accessible path to parenthood.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYLittle is known of gay fathers’ motivations to use surrogacy as a path to parenthood over and above other forms of family building, such as adoption, and no studies have examined fathers’ satisfaction with the surrogacy process.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONThis study used a cross-sectional design as part of a larger investigation of parent–child relationships and child adjustment in 40 gay father surrogacy families. Multiple strategies (e.g. surrogacy agencies, social events and snowballing) were used to recruit as diverse a sample as possible. Data were obtained from 74 fathers (in 6 families only 1 father was available for interview).PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODSemi-structured interviews, lasting ~1 h, were conducted in the family home (65%) or over Skype (35%) with 74 gay fathers (35 genetic fathers, 32 non-genetic fathers and 7 fathers who did not know or did not disclose who the genetic father was), when the children were 3–9 years old.MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCEGenetic and non-genetic fathers were just as likely to want to become parents and had similar motivations for choosing surrogacy as a path to parenthood. Most fathers (N = 55, 74%) were satisfied with surrogacy and were satisfied (N = 31. 42%) or had neutral feelings (N = 21, 28%) about their choice of who would be the genetic father. Most fathers received supportive reactions to their decision to use surrogacy from both families of origin (e.g. parents, siblings) (N = 47, 64%) and from friends (N = 63, 85%).LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTIONAlthough diverse recruitment strategies were used, data were obtained from a volunteer sample. Therefore, the possibility that fathers who had a positive surrogacy experience may have been more likely to participate in the study, and therefore introduce bias, cannot be ruled out. Due to the high average annual income of the fathers in the study, findings may not generalize to gay fathers with lower incomes.WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGSIt is often assumed that parents’ primary motivation for using ART is to have a genetic connection to the child. This study revealed that whilst genetic fatherhood was important for some gay fathers in surrogacy families, it was not important for all. This information will be of use to surrogacy agencies and organizations supporting men who are considering the different routes to parenthood.STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust [097857/Z/11/Z] and the Jacob's Foundation. None of the authors has any conflict of interest to declare.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERN/A.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gay fathers’ motivations for and feelings about surrogacy as a path to parenthood

et al. 2017

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“…Indeed, previous studies underlined the presence of high levels of internalized heterosexism in Italian LG population [ 39 ], as well as in LG individuals who were in the reproductive age [ 9 ]. Unfortunately, despite the positive legal progress, Italian LG individuals still experience high rates of minority stressors [ 45 ], which, in turn, negatively affect parenting desire [ 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parenting Desire and Minority Stress in Lesbians and Gay Men: A Mediation Framework

Amodeo

Esposito

Bochicchio

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Despite the rapid increase in lesbian and gay (LG) people who desire and decide to become parents, LG childless individuals may encounter serious obstacles in the parenthood process, such as minority stress. Notwithstanding, the psychological processes by which prejudice events might affect the desire to become parents are still understudied. As an extension of the minority stress theory, the psychological mediation framework sheds light on these psychological processes, as it encompasses a more clinical view of stress. Within this framework, the current study aimed at assessing the role of prejudice events in affecting parenting desire in 290 childless Italian LG individuals (120 lesbians and 170 gay men), as well as the role of internalized heterosexism and sexual orientation concealment in mediating the relationship between prejudice events and parenting desire. The results suggest that only in lesbians prejudice events were negatively associated with parenting desire, and that sexual orientation concealment and internalized heterosexism were also negatively associated with parenting desire. Furthermore, sexual orientation concealment, and not internalized heterosexism, mediated the relationship between prejudice events and parenting desire in lesbians, but not gay men. The findings have important implications for clinical practice.

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“…Careaga (2011) claimed that in Mexico the majority of LG individuals with children, became parents in the context of a previous heterosexual relationship which is consistent with the existing international research (e.g., Patterson and Tornello, 2010 ; Tornello and Patterson, 2015 ). However, “a generational change in timing and pathways to parenthood is taking place” ( Tornello and Patterson, 2015 , p. 44), because younger LG individuals are having children after coming out, through sperm donation ( Lingiardi et al, 2016 ), surrogacy ( Blake et al, 2017 ; Carone et al, 2017 , 2018 ), adoption ( Goldberg, 2012 ), informal adoptions ( Amazonas et al, 2013 ), step parenting and co-parenting ( Tornello and Patterson, 2015 ; Carneiro et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Children Have Ordinary Expectable Caregiving Environments in Unconventional Contexts? Quality of Care Organization in Three Mexican Same-Sex Planned Families

et al. 2018

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The aim of this research was to explore the elements that configure the quality of care among three Mexican same-sex planned families: two female-parented families (through donor insemination) and a male-parented one (through adoption). The first family consisted of two mothers and a 3-year-old daughter; the second one had two mothers and a 1.5-year-old set of boy twins and the third family consisted of two fathers and a 2-year-old girl. It was assumed that Ainsworth’s notions of quality of care organization are useful in order to understand caregiver–child attachment relationships, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation. A collective case study was selected due to the fact that these families shared their “unconventionality” (i.e., parents were not heterosexual) and the fact that they were planned, but each one constituted a particular case with a unique configuration. Four trained independent observers used the q-sort methodology (Maternal Behavior Q-Sort and Attachment Q-Sort) to describe parents’ and children’s behavior, respectively. The findings showed that parents were highly sensitive and all children used them as a secure base. To provide an in-depth examination of which elements configure the quality of care, a semi-structured interview with each parent was carried out. Through a thematic analysis, an over-arching theme named Affections and Emotions was identified, together with six subthemes: (1) Creating an affective environment; (2) Being available; (3) Acknowledging and expressing emotions; (4) Perceiving, interpreting and responding adequately to the child’s real self; (5) Taking the child’s perspective into account; and (6) Agreeing on roles and dividing the tasks. In order to showcase the particular configuration of gay parenting, the male-headed family narrative is reported in detail, because gay parents have been perceived as violating traditional gender roles as well as the hegemonic model of masculinity. The findings were consistent with the notion of quality of care as proposed by Ainsworth and her collaborators. The implications of the methodological device and research regarding same-sex planned families are discussed so as to understand the organization of the caregiving environment.

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‘It's a bit too much fathering this seed’: the meaning-making of the sperm donor in Italian lesbian mother families

Cited by 27 publications

References 58 publications

Gay fathers’ motivations for and feelings about surrogacy as a path to parenthood

Gay fathers’ motivations for and feelings about surrogacy as a path to parenthood

Parenting Desire and Minority Stress in Lesbians and Gay Men: A Mediation Framework

Can Children Have Ordinary Expectable Caregiving Environments in Unconventional Contexts? Quality of Care Organization in Three Mexican Same-Sex Planned Families

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