The Creation of Motherhood

This paper explores the experiences of lesbian co-mothers who have had children with their partners through the use of alternative insemination. It attempts to demonstrate what factors, environmental, interpersonal and intrapersonal, contribute to the co-mothers' concepts and the development of themselves as mothers. A narrative approach was used to best create a forum for lesbian co-mothers to tell their stories as they saw them and as they chose, in an attempt to make their “invisible” experiences visible. These findings support, contradict, and add to previous research and conceptualizations of lesbian co-mothers.