New event: Hertfordshire - meetup
Come along to join the next meetup for members in Hertfordshire at St. Marks church hall on Sunday 22nd February – 2.30-5.00pm
Members in all circumstances and family circumstances are warmly welcome!
There is a kitchen facility there that is available to be used.
Local group coordinator, Randi, will be there to welcome you!
Come along to join the next meetup for members in West London
on Sunday 22nd February at The Eagle, 215 askew road, W12 9AZ.
Members in all family circumstances are warmly welcome as well thinkers & triers!
Local group coordinator, Chloe, solo mom of 2 year old Lily, will be there to welcome you and the families will have a chance to meet.
Single women - Sperm donation - Prospective parent
This is a DCN chat for single women considering or in treatment to become solo mums. This chat is open for those using sperm donation or considering double donation and offers a space for discussion and peer support.
This chat will be facilitated by Anna. Anna is a solo mum in the Network who kindly volunteers to support others.
This is not a professionally led or educational event with set objectives, rather this is a space for sharing and meeting others at the same or a similar stage of the journey.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further more professional support, please don’t hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
Heterosexual couples -Chat for those considering egg donation - Prospective parent
A space for members considering egg donation, to come together to talk about shared issues. DCN Chat is a peer support online get-together. This DCN Chat will be hosted by Alex.
*There is a separate group running for those undertaking treatment already – this group is predominently for thinking through this route to parenthood.
All our DCN Chat facilitators are members themselves, and hosting the chat as individuals. This is not a professionally led or educational event.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further support, please dont hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
Heterosexual couples -Chat for those undergoing treatment with egg donation
A space for members who are in the process of undertaking treatment with egg donation, to come together to talk about shared issues.
DCN Chat is a peer support online get-together. This DCN Chat will be hosted by Anna.
All our DCN Chat facilitators are members themselves, and hosting the chat as individuals. This is not a professionally led or educational event.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further support, please dont hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
This is a DCN chat for solo mums (or solo dads) who started the road to parenthood on their own and are now at a stage where they are thinking of letting potential partners into their life or already have a partner.
It is a chance to get together to think about how this plays out for the children and those around them. We share different living concepts which is very enriching.
This chat will be facilitated by Stefanie, whose situation mirrors the topic of this DCN Chat. All our DCN Chat facilitators are members themselves, and hosting the chat as individuals. This is not a professionally led or educational event.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further more professional support, please don’t hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
Heterosexual couples -Chat for those considering egg donation - Prospective parent
A space for members considering egg donation, to come together to talk about shared issues. DCN Chat is a peer support online get-together. This DCN Chat will be hosted by Alex.
*There is a separate group running for those undertaking treatment already – this group is predominently for thinking through this route to parenthood.
All our DCN Chat facilitators are members themselves, and hosting the chat as individuals. This is not a professionally led or educational event.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further support, please dont hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
Couples (including separated couples) with children ages 4-7
You are invited to join us for a conversation for members who are parents to children aged 4-7 years old.
DCN Chat is a peer support online get-together. This DCN Chat will be hosted by Joumana, mum through egg donation to two children. All our DCN Chat facilitators are members themselves, volunteers, and hosting the chat as individuals. This is not a professionally led or educational event.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further support, please don’t hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
‘Reflections’ - Parents of DC Adults
You are invited to join the group for parents of DC adults. This group will be facilitated by Jane, one of our longterm members who also works with DCN.
We are inviting parents of those with children who are adults.
We hope this chat can offer an attuned space to the discussions that may be more relevant to the context in which children were conceived 20+ years ago, in a different climate to that which is now prevalent, with regards to openness in particular.
Join us for discussion and support from peers.
Couples with babies born or expected 2026
This is a DCN chat for couples, heterosexual or same-sex, who are new parents to babies born in 2026.
DCN Chat is a peer support online get-together. The space will be open for you to connect with others and will be facilitated by Ian, who together with his wife, has one child concieved through egg donation who is 3 years old.
Join us for a friendly opportunity to meet others at the same stage as you, for a place to grow friendships for you and your family.
If you find that you need further more professional support, please don’t hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
We are looking forward to welcoming you to DCN Volunteers’ Day 2026!
Join us for in person in London for a day of networking, catching up on DCN news, role-support and a chance for us to say a big THANK YOU to you all for the contributions that you make to the Network. The day will include:
* Coffee, tea and pastries on arrival
* Welcome, with highlights from 2025 and what’s new for 2026
* Meeting and networking with other volunteers to share ideas, challenges and achievements
* Volunteer training / Break-out sessions to talk through role-specific issues- details TBC
* Plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion
We’d love you to attend so we are offering:
* Travel expenses to attend the event – please book early to help us minimise costs. We have a limited budget so please check beforehand on big sums. To those of you outside the UK, if you would like to attend, please contact us to discuss how we can help.
* Crèche spaces – For those who can only attend if they bring their child, we are offering a limited number of free spaces for children 6 months to 8 years, so please register early
* Lunch and refreshments
Berkshire- Solo mums - Windsor way group
Windsor solo mum group are inviting solo mums (and mums-to-be) from across the county, to join their next events.
8 Mar 2026 11-2pm – South Hill Park Bracknell
14 Jun 2026 – California Park Wokingham
13 Sep 2026 – TBC
29 Nov 2026 – TBC
Times and locations if not listed are tbc but usually South Hill Park Bracknell, California Park Wokingham, Lammas Park Staines or Windsor Great Park, with a hall in the winter (Windsor usually). Anyone free to email me for further info at dcnwindsorway@gmail.com.
The Big Question - What can we learn from the world of adoption?
Donor conception isn’t the same as adoption, but there are overlaps. The donor conception world, and DC Network particularly, has drawn a lot of its approach from the experience and approach of the adoption and post-adoption community.
As with donor conception, there was a time when adoption was kept a secret and professionals told parents to pretend to the child that they had been conceived naturally by the parents raising them. They might even have been told that it could be damaging to the child to know the truth.
That advice changed a long time ago. In part, that was because adoption moved from a private arrangement to sit under the umbrella of social services, so social work principles were invoked early on. There was a recognition that truth was important, that biological relationships were important (even if they weren’t the whole story) and that, with support, adoptive parents could find a way to share the information with their children truthfully and positively.
It took longer for the donor conception community to embrace those messages. Donor conception has always come under the umbrella of clinical fertility treatment and was viewed more through that medical lens. But adoption led the way in showing it could and should be done. There were lots of helpful messages to learn from listening to adoptees, adoptive parents and professionals working in that field that could also be translated into good practice for the donor conception community.
Of course, there are important differences with adoption, including the key fact that parents raising a donor conceived child were always the ones who intended to have that child.
But both share questions around how to manage information about a child’s origins and how to integrate other people who are closely genetically related into their family story and potentially into their lives.
For our fourth ‘Big Question’ webinar, we thought this was a great topic to discuss. We will be exploring what we can learn from the adoption world and how it can help inform our approach where there is common ground.
We’ve invited Marilyn Crawshaw and Susie Blamire, both social workers with extensive experience in adoption and donor conception, to join us in considering the question.
Now an Honorary Fellow at the University of York, Marilyn Crawshaw has worked since the 1980s in the field of assisted conception and adoption, variously as a social worker, social work academic, Social and Ethical Inspector with the HFEA (the UK regulator) and policy adviser. She was a founder member of the British Infertility Counselling Association. Her research has been with DC adults, recipient parents, donors, adoptive parents and professionals.
As a local authority social worker, Susie Blamire placed numerous children for adoption. She joined Cafcass in 2008, later becoming Head of Practice of their National Improvement Service. Susie was Cafcass’ Peer Practice Specialist on Modern Families, which encompassed gamete donation. Susie moved to the Disclosure and Barring Service in August 2025 as Associate Director – Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and is also a Director of Surrogacy UK. She is the mother of two donor-conceived children.
The conversation will explore themes such as:
*) Adoption used to be kept secret – why did that change?
*) How to ‘tell’ and why it’s important?
*) What can adoptees teach us about the significance, or not, of genetics and biological relationships?
*) What helps build robust families?
You can join in the conversation too. We’ll be open to written comments, reflections and questions from members, either when you register or live during the event.
We’ll be recording the conversation and will put the video in the members’ area on the website shortly after the webinar. Anyone registered will get notified when the recording is available.
London meetup - Lambeth north
Join us for an evening meetup at the Hercules pub.
Members at all stages in all circumstances are very welcome and new members are particularly invited!
This is a chance for adults to discuss any aspects of donor conception and is a great opportunity to meet others in the Network and get some support from our community. Yael will be facilitating this event.
The pub is located just opposite Lambeth North Tube station and a few minutes walk from Waterloo station. We have secured a private room upstairs.
You are invited to join us for a conversation for members who are either intending or have ‘mixed’ families – our term for those with a naturally conceived child (or adopted) and a donor conceived child, to talk about shared issues.
DCN Chat is a peer support online get-together. This DCN Chat will be hosted by Laura, mum to two – the oldest naturally conceived and the youngest conceive through egg donation.
All our DCN Chat facilitators are members themselves, volunteers, and hosting the chat as individuals. This is not a professionally led or educational event.
Join us for a supportive space to talk to others in similar situations. If you find that you need further support, please don’t hesitate to contact the DC Network office on enquiries@dcnetwork.org
