Insemination may be your best option for starting a family. Learn the basics first
This is a good place to start your journey towards successful insemination. There are a few choices you can make after first learning your options – so basic definitions are required.
Artificial Insemination (AI)
Artificial insemination (AI) is a common procedure lesbians use to become pregnant. In AI, sperm is injected into a woman’s cervix, uterus, fallopian tube, or ovarian follicle. Sperm is typically selected from a sperm bank or from a known donor. This may be done at home.
Sperm Bank
A sperm bank is an organization that collects and stores sperm for artificial insemination. Gay men can store their own sperm for later use with a surrogate, and lesbians can get sperm from donors to be used for artificial insemination.
Second Parent Adoption
This is common among gay and lesbian parents. This may be an option when the biological or legal parent of a child or children is in a relationship with another adult wanting to share parental rights and responsibilities. In contrast to stepparent adoption/domestic partner adoption second parent adoption is used only when the parents can’t marry or become domestic partners. The biological or legal parent consents to relinquish sole custody of the child so that his/her partner can become a second, legal parent. The process may take months to complete and an attorney is typically required to work with the court system.
More Definitions
Image: ProudParenting.com member – trabran3
My partner and I are interested in TTC in the new year. We are in a delima now about wether we should use a close friend and a known doner or a sperm bank. The known doner has expressed interest in becoming parents with my partner for several years and they are very close. I am not sure if this will be in our best ineterest or the baby’s for that matter. On one hand we would like our baby to be able to know his/her father, however this seems to imply complications legaly in the future. He has expressed that he would like the baby to cary his last name and to have monthly or anual visitation. I already have 3 children myself and have had alot of drama with custody and visitation so I know how ugly people can be in these situations, so this causes some fear on my part as far as going thru this at all. We live in Nevada which is not a very gay friendly state to begin with so I am not sure what the laws are regarding second parent adoption, or open adoption for that matter…
Does anyone have expierence with this to share?
hi! i just happened to stumble upon your question and i talked about this subject in my blog.
check it out here. it’s tagged in the ttc section.
best of luck! be blessed!
http://specificdestiny.blogspot.com/
If the child has his last name and calls the donor “dad” then your “known donor” will be a legal father, not a donor. This is a very big decision. In the eyes of the law someone is a parent or a donor, they cannot be both. I urge you to seek legal advice. Contact the National Center for Lesbian Rights for a refferral.
Me and my partner want to have a baby ,but we do not know how to get started does anybody know how or where should we get started???