Anna Malmquist

Lesbian shared biological motherhood: the ethics of IVF with reception of oocytes from partner

In vitro fertilization (IVF) with reception of oocytes from partners (ROPA) allows lesbian mothers to share biological motherhood. The gestational mother receives an egg from her partner who becomes the genetic mother. This article examines the ethics of IVF with ROPA with a focus on the welfare of the woman and the resulting child, on whether ROPA qualifies as a “legitimate” medical therapy that falls within the goals of medicine, and on the meaning and value attributed to a biologically shared bond between parents and child. We also contrast IVF with ROPA with egg donor IVF for heterosexual couples and intrafamilial live uterus transplantation with IVF, and show how Swedish legislation makes certain ways of sharing biological bonds out of place. In Sweden, IVF with ROPA is illegal, egg donor IVF for heterosexual couples is allowed and practiced as is sperm donor IVF for lesbians, and live uterus transplantation is performed within a research project (though not allowed in regular health care). But is ROPA really ethically more problematic than these other cases? The article argues that IVF with ROPA gives rise to fewer ethical questions than does live uterus transplantation with IVF and, in some cases, egg donor IVF.

Efforts to maintain a ‘just great’ story: Lesbian parents’ talk about encounters with professionals in fertility clinics and maternal and child healthcare services

After lesbian couples have decided to become parents, their family-making journey entails a wide range of encounters with professionals in fertility clinics and/or in maternal and child healthcare services. The article presents the results of an analysis of 96 lesbian mothers’ interview talk about such encounters. In their stories and accounts, the interviewees draw on two separate and contradictory interpretative repertoires, the ‘just great’ repertoire and the ‘heteronormative issues’ repertoire. Throughout the interviews, the ‘just great’ repertoire strongly predominates, while the ‘heteronormative issues’ repertoire is rhetorically minimized. The recurrent accounts of health services as ‘just great’, and the mitigation of problems, are meaningful in relation to a broader discursive context. In a society where different-sex parents are the norm, the credibility of other kinds of parenthood is at stake. The ‘just great’ repertoire has a normalizing function for lesbian mothers, while the ‘heteronormative issues’ repertoire resists normative demands for adaptation.

‘A daddy is the same as a mummy’ : Swedish children in lesbian households talk about fathers and donors

The present article discusses how 12 children (five to eight years) in planned lesbian families talk about families, parents and specifically ‘daddies’ as such and not having a father themselves. Findings from child interviews demonstrate that the children described daddies as ‘the same’ as mummies, i.e. as having the same functions. This contrasts with previous research showing how children of heterosexuals often describe mothers and fathers as different. The children varied in terms of how they labelled donors. Some children adopted the denomination ‘daddy’, drawing on a paternity discourse, while others simply referred to him as ‘a man’.

Nulliparous pregnant women's narratives of imminent childbirth before and after internet‐based cognitive behavioural therapy for severe fear of childbirth: a qualitative study

To describe the expectations concerning imminent childbirth before and after 8 weeks of internet‐based cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) among nulliparous pregnant women with severe fear of childbirth.

Vulnerability and Acceptance : lesbian Women's Family-Making through Assisted Reproduction in Swedish Public Health Care

Female same-sex couples in Sweden have had access to fertility treatment within public health care since 2005. Treatment is generally tax funded, with a minimal of personal expenses. After birth, both mothers gain legal status as the childs parents. This article draws on findings from interviews with 29 lesbian mothers, all of whom have sought treatment at fertility clinics within the Swedish public health care system. Parts of the interviews in which the mothers describe deficiencies in the provided treatment have been scrutinized in detail. Results show how heteronormative assumptions about the family and a feeling of exposure in the role of patient give rise to vulnerability in lesbian mothers. Furthermore, neither routines nor the offered treatment are adapted to lesbian womens specific needs. Regarding dealing with deficiencies, the interviews are filled with expressions of acceptance, which rhetorically minimize the impact of potential stressors. A main conclusion is that legal inclusion of lesbians in fertility treatment is of groundbreaking importance to lesbians with a desire to become parents. The next step is to address heteronormativity within the health care institutions in order to develop treatment adapted to lesbian couples’ specific needs.

Women in Lesbian Relations Construing Equal or Unequal Parental Roles

When a lesbian couple conceives through donor insemination, the partners transform their relations to each other. In this article, I explore how women in lesbian relations depict their parental roles in relation to the notion of equality. Drawing on critical discursive psychology, I conducted and analyzed interviews with 96 Swedish lesbian parents. Findings show how the interviewees draw on three different interpretative repertoires when they talk about their parental roles. In one repertoire, parents describe themselves as being spontaneously equal in relation to the child. In a second repertoire, equality is depicted as a potential result of struggling, where some parents claim to have achieved equality, whereas others describe being frustrated about their unequal situation. Finally, in a third repertoire, inequality is depicted as a given starting point, drawing on a biologistic rhetoric. Although most parents present equality as idealized, most also refer to biology as a reality that sets the benchmark. Findings in the present study could be useful for clinicians working with lesbian couples; rather than assuming that a lesbian couple is more or less equal, it is important to consider the specific couple and their descriptions.

A Crucial but Strenuous Process : Female Same-Sex Couples’ Reflections on Second-Parent Adoption

When a female same-sex couple has a child together through assisted reproduction, it is important that both partners be granted status as the childs legal parents. Second-parent adoption, where the non-birth mother adopts the child, is currently an option in several Western nations. The article presents findings from interviews with 96 Swedish mothers, all of whom have gone through second-parent adoptions in same-sex relations. The interviewees describe the adoption as crucial for their family. If the parents divorce or if one of them dies, it is deemed important to have legal parenthood established. A second-parent adoption process in Sweden can take several months to finish. In several interviews, the social workers assessing the family for the adoption are depicted as unprofessional and as asking irrelevant or intrusive questions. Others depict social workers as kind and competent. Other methods of granting legal parenthood to non-birth mothers are suggested for Swedish legislation.

No one of importance: lesbian mothers' constructions of permamently anonymous sperm donors

The present study discusses how Swedish lesbian couples argue for their choice of permanently anonymous donors after conceiving at fertility clinics in Denmark. In a Swedish context, these women challenge both the established Swedish practice of identity-release donors and the previously common practice of lesbian mothers engaging in joint parenthood with gay fathers. Altogether 78 mothers have been interviewed. Discourse analysis show that the interviewees use two main constructions when talking about the permanently anonymous sperm donor: “the donor is not a father” and “the donor is the child’s other half”. The study shows how both these constructions serve to justify that the mothers are good parents. Central aspects in doing good parenthood is to have a close parent–child relationship, taking care of the child in everyday life and acknowledge the child’s future search for its identity.