Mother on My Own Terms: Single Mother by Choice Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe becoming a single mother by choice, starting with the decision — a spreadsheet before telling anyone, a doctor's advice to start early, ten years of saying she did not want children, a partner who died, eggs frozen before chemotherapy. Writers describe the routes in practical detail: donor sperm from a bank and the search for a donor who looked like the family, a known donor and a contract between friends, IVF, a monthly train to Copenhagen, fifty injections for someone afraid of needles, and for others adoption, fostering and a teenager who became a daughter at fourteen. There are losses and long waits, twins nobody planned, eleven weeks alone in neonatal intensive care, and recovery from a caesarean in an empty house. Writers include a gay woman done waiting, a midwife, a student, women in their forties, and families across cultures where aunties, grandmothers and fathers had strong opinions. Later chapters cover the clinic bills, telling a boss before a mother, Father's Day questions, a son of fifteen who is doing fine, and the neighbours and relatives who became the other parent.

Who it's for

For women considering motherhood on their own, those in the middle of treatment or an adoption wait, and the parents, friends and neighbours who will become the village.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 233 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.