Keeping Your Family Healthy And Happy

Five Common Options For Lesbian Couples Hoping To Have A Child

Lesbian couples have quite a few different options available to them when deciding how they will become parents. It's important that couples make sure that they're aware of all the options to arrive on the best possible parenting solution.

The following are five of the main options available to lesbian couples who are looking to conceive a child and become parents:

Coparenting

Coparenting allows a lesbian couple to conceive with the help of a man or in some cases a homosexual male couple also hoping to become parents. With coparenting, both couples can work together to raise the child who is conceived. 

Coparenting can allow for all natural conception, but it's important that a couple doesn't go into such an agreement unless they feel absolutely certain that conflicts won't come up with any parties partaking in the coparenting. 

Insemination by a donor's sperm and an egg from one of the mothers

A lesbian couple can have a child by using artificial insemination to impregnate one member of the couple. This way, the child will be the biological offspring of one of the two parents. 

While this can be a good option for many couples, in some couples it will be difficult to decide who will go through the pregnancy and be the genetic parent of the child. 

Insemination with donor sperm and egg

It's possible to use donor sperm and egg to impregnate one of the parents through in vitro fertilization. This way, neither of the two parents will be biologically related to the child but one of the parents will be pregnant with and give birth to the child.

This is a good option in a variety of situations. One advantage of this situation is it makes it so that a parent with a hereditary healthcare disorder can avoid passing the disorder on to the child while still giving birth to the child. 

Surrogate pregnancy with donor sperm and egg

With a surrogate pregnancy, neither of the parents actually has to go through pregnancy and childbirth. If a donor sperm and egg are used, neither of the parents will be genetically related to the child. 

Surrogate pregnancy with a gestational carrier

It's possible to have a child through a surrogate pregnancy but have one parent who is the biological parent of the child with a gestational carrier.

With a gestational carrier, the egg comes from one of the parents and is implanted into the surrogate mother with in vitro fertilization. This is a good solution if one of the parents wants to be genetically related to the childhood but neither of the parents wants to go through pregnancy and childbirth. 

For more information, contact local professionals like those found at Delaware Valley Institute of Fertility.


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