Personal Stories
We are very grateful to all those who have taken the time to write about their personal experiences of donor conception and issues relating to it. These stories are invaluable in helping to share common feelings around complex issues. Reading about how others have dealt with things is often very reassuring.
Use the drop-down options to search for particular story types. And if you would like to contribute your own story, please do get in touch with us.
"Becoming a solo mum has made my dream come true" - Anna's story
This is a personal story from February 2018 written by Anna.
Feeling Good: What helps children & teenagers feel good about themselves as donor conceived people?
What makes us the sort of people that we are? How much are we influenced by our parents when it is our parents who bring us up? How much is down to our genes? And how much is down to the environment that we live in?
Being a Family: Raising children well
This is the talk given at the 2003 March national meeting in London by Mary MacLeod, then Chief Executive of the National Family and Parenting Institute.
You’re not my father/mother anyway
Olivia Montuschi offers some supportive insights into the fear that haunts parents of donor conceived children.... Anxieties about rejection by our children, particularly as they become teenagers, are very common, but understanding these fears in the context of developmental stages and needs of both children and parents can help.
The Rights of Children
An egg donor and mother of a sperm donor conceived child tells why she would be happy for children born from her donated eggs to have access to information about her.
The issue of language
Olivia Montuschi, one of the founders of DCN ponders the tricky question of language around donor conception
IVF –The Decision To Go It Alone
I'm 35 and single. I've recently completed 1 full IVF cycle using donor sperm and 2 frozen embryo cycles, all of which have been unsuccessful, but I haven't given up yet.
Meeting a half-sibling
A mother describes the experience of discovering and meeting her children’s half sibling.
Letter from Emily
Planning a family as a single woman
a letter from Emily to would-be solo mums
Dear Would-be Solo Mum