Embryo donation families : mothers' decisions regarding disclosure of donor conception

BACKGROUND: Previous data suggest that parents who adopt a child tend to support full disclosure while donor conception families prefer to keep the method of conception relatively private. It is not known whether parents in embryo donation families will tend towards the adoption model, therefore, we studied families with a child conceived using donated embryos. METHODS: A total of 21 embryo donation families with a child aged 2–5 years were recruited through UK fertility clinics. Mothers were administered a standardized semi-structured interview, obtaining data on the extent of their disclosure to children and other family members and their reasons for this decision. RESULTS: At the time of interview, 9% of mothers had told their child how they had conceived; 24% of mothers reported that they were planning to tell the child in future; 43% had decided that they would never tell the child, and the remaining 24% were undecided. However, nearly three-quarter of mothers (72%) had disclosed to other family members. Maternal grandparents were more likely to have been told than paternal grandparents (P < 0.025). Reasons cited for non-disclosure to the child included the desire to protect the child, the belief that disclosure is unnecessary, and the concern that family relationships would be damaged. Reasons in favour of disclosure included the desire to avoid accidental disclosure and the belief that the child has the right to know. CONCLUSIONS: Embryo donation mothers were similar to parents of donor insemination and oocyte donation children in their attitudes towards disclosure of donor conception

Parenting and child development in families with a child conceived through embryo donation

Concerns have been raised regarding the potentially negative effects of conception using donated embryos on parenting and child development. Findings are presented of an exploratory study of families with a child conceived through embryo donation. Twenty-one embryo donation families were compared with 28 adoptive families and 30 in vitro fertilization families on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of the parents' marital and psychological state, the quality of parent-child relationships, and the child's development. In all 3 groups, the children were aged 2-5 years. The differences indicated higher emotional overinvolvement and defensive responding in the embryo donation families, along with greater secrecy about the child's origins. The children were not at increased risk of psychological problems. The study provides interesting but preliminary findings on parent-child relationships and child development in a new family form

‘Making the child mine’: mothers’ thoughts and feelings about the mother-infant relationship in egg donation families

The number of families being created through fertility treatment with donor eggs is increasing yearly. Women who conceive in this way share a gestational, but not genetic, relationship with their child, yet there is limited understanding of how mothers experience the mother-child relationship during its formative period, infancy. This study explored heterosexual mothers’ thoughts and feelings about the mother-infant relationship in families created through egg donation. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 85 women who had conceived following egg donation treatment at UK fertility clinics. Mothers had at least one infant (6-18 months) and were living with the child’s father. Interview data were analysed according to the principles of thematic analysis. The results showed that egg donation mothers used a range of strategies across the transition to parenthood which enabled them to establish their identity as the child’s mother and facilitated the process of helping them feel that the baby was their own. This process was individual to each woman, with the absent genetic connection varying in significance between mothers. The strategies employed enabled most mothers to adjust successfully to parenthood and manage any ambivalence and uncertainties associated with non-genetic parenthood. Most mothers felt secure and confident in their position as the child’s mother by the end of the first year.his research was supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award [097857/Z/11/Z] and a CHESS-ESRC studentshi

Psychological adjustment in adolescents conceived by assisted reproduction techniques: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a transitional time for identity formation and relationships with parents. While people born through assisted reproduction techniques (ART) appear to be well adjusted in childhood, it is unclear whether these findings carry into adolescence, and whether diverse ART have different psychological outcomes. This review summarizes what is known about the psychological adjustment and family relationships of the growing number of children born through ART who are reaching adolescence. METHODS: The Pubmed, Web of Knowledge, PsycINFO and Scopus databases were searched systematically for peer reviewed papers focusing on adolescent psychological adjustment and parent-adolescent relationships in families created by ART. Key search inclusion criteria included all papers published in English relating to adolescents aged between 11 and 18 years. RESULTS: Seventeen publications with varied methodologies were identified by this review. Only papers relating to in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg donation and donor insemination were identified. Results were categorized according to ART that used the parents' own gametes (IVF) and those that involved reproductive donation (egg donation, and donor insemination). Compared with naturally conceived adolescents and standardized normative samples, adolescents born through all ARTs seemed to be equally well adjusted, and to have positive parent-adolescent relationships. Some differences were however identified based on the type of ART used. In particular, the sex of the parent and child, along with age and process of disclosure of the adolescent's conception were identified as key mediators of parent-adolescent relationships in families created by donor insemination. CONCLUSIONS: The studies in this review indicate that children born through ART have positive parent-adolescent relationships and are well adjusted, with some slight differences based on different ART. The generalizability of findings may be limited by the general low level of disclosure to adolescents in some of the publications, the small sample sizes of studies in the field, along with the large age range that encompasses adolescence. Findings should also be interpreted in light of the fact that many publications focus on singleton births. Future studies should also focus on egg donation, surrogacy and embryo donation, as well as the disclosure processes, and adolescents born into non-traditional families (same-sex or single parents) or those born using different types of donor (anonymous, identity-release or known).Wellcome TrustThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmu05

'What Does Donor Mean to a Four-Year-Old?': Initial Insights into Young Children's Perspectives in Solo Mother Families.

This study reports on the questions, thoughts and feelings of children aged 4-9 conceived by donor insemination to single mothers. Fifty-one mothers and 47 children from the same families were each administered a semi-structured interview. Mothers generally reported that while children either lack understanding, or have not yet been told, about their donor conception, they may be thinking and talking about the absence of a father. Most children did not mention either donor conception or father absence and reported positive feelings about their families and friendships. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between mothers' and children's reports are discussed.Wellcome Trust (Grant ID: 097857/Z/11/Z)This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/chso.1218

Documenting Families: Paper-Work in Family Display among Planned Single Father Families

This article extends existing sociological scholarship on doing and displaying family by developing the concept of documenting families. We suggest that documenting is conceptually rich insofar as it showcases the relationship, and tensions, between institutional practices and individual experiences of family display. Drawing on our research with men who became parents without partners, we argue that the process of documenting family is made especially evident in studies of what Finch originally referred to as ‘non-conventional’ family relationships. We explain that documenting sheds light not only on the official and unofficial means through which families are recognised on paper, but also on family practices as work – in this case paper-work – that involves negotiation between different social actors who are generally unequal in terms of their authority and agency to impose situational meaning

Single Mothers by Choice: Mother–Child Relationships and Children’s Psychological Adjustment

Fifty-one solo mother families were compared with 52 two-parent families all with a 4 –9-year-old child conceived by donor insemination. Standardized interview, observational and questionnaire measures of maternal wellbeing, mother– child relationships and child adjustment were administered to mothers, children and teachers. There were no differences in parenting quality between family types apart from lower mother– child conflict in solo mother families. Neither were there differences in child adjustment. Perceived financial difficulties, child’s gender, and parenting stress were associated with children’s adjustment problems in both family types. The findings suggest that solo motherhood, in itself, does not result in psychological problems for children.This project was supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award

Disclosure of sperm donation: a comparison between solo mother and two-parent families with identifiable donors.

Disclosure of donor conception to children was compared between solo mother and two-parent families with children aged 4-8 years conceived since the removal of donor anonymity in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 heterosexual solo mothers and 47 heterosexual mothers with partners to investigate their decisions and experiences about identifiable donation and disclosure to their children. No significant difference was found in the proportion of mothers in each family type who had told their children about their donor conception (solo mothers 54.8%; partnered mothers 36.2%). Of those who had not told, a significantly higher proportion of solo mothers than partnered mothers intended to disclose (P < 0.05). Partnered mothers were more likely than solo mothers to feel neutral, ambivalent or negative about having used an identifiable donor (P < 0.05), and were less likely to consider children's knowledge of their genetic origins as extremely important (P < 0.05). These findings are relevant to provision of counselling services as it cannot be assumed that parents will tell their children about their origins or their entitlement to request the identity of their donor at the age of 18 years. Further qualitative research would increase understanding of solo mothers' attitudes towards disclosure.Wellcome Trust (Grant ID: 097857/Z/11/Z

A longitudinal study of families formed through third-party assisted reproduction:Mother-child relationships and child adjustment from infancy to adulthood

The seventh phase of this longitudinal study investigated whether children born through third-party assisted reproduction experienced psychological problems, or difficulties in their relationship with their mothers, in early adulthood. The impact of disclosure of their biological origins, and quality of mother–child relationships from age 3 onward, were also examined. Sixty-five assisted reproduction families, including 22 surrogacy families, 17 egg donation families, and 26 sperm donation families, were compared with 52 unassisted conception families when the children were aged 20. Less than half of the mothers had completed tertiary education and less than 5% were from ethnic minority backgrounds. Standardized interviews and questionnaires were administered to mothers and young adults. There were no differences between assisted reproduction and unassisted conception families in mothers’ or young adults’ psychological well-being, or the quality of family relationships. However, within the gamete donation families, egg donation mothers reported less positive family relationships than sperm donation mothers, and young adults conceived by sperm donation reported poorer family communication than those conceived by egg donation. Young adults who learned about their biological origins before age 7 had less negative relationships with their mothers, and their mothers showed lower levels of anxiety and depression. Associations between parenting and child adjustment did not differ between assisted and unassisted reproduction families from ages 3 to 20. The findings suggest that the absence of a biological connection between children and their parents in assisted reproduction families does not interfere with the development of positive mother–child relationships or psychological adjustment in adulthood