How to become a mother without a male partner? What do I need to be a single mother?

Some women chose to become mothers without having a male partner and turn to assisted reproductive techniques in order to achieve this goal. We see this at our practice as an increasingly common option taken by women.

The right for single women to undergo IVF to create a family was provided for under assisted reproduction legislation in 1988. However in recent years it has become an everyday occurrence.

Social changes especially in the workplace mean that many women are finding themselves at the end of their reproductive age and without a stable enough relationship in order to take on the commitment of having a child.

In other cases, it represents a clear decision by the women to have a child without a male partner having any rights or obligations vis-à-vis the child. Today we see many couples with children breaking up. To all this we must add that society’s attitude towards single mothers has changed dramatically; from rejection in the past to understanding, acceptance and in many cases admiration for these women today.

At Instituto Bernabeu we have not been oblivious to this phenomenon and have learned early on to understand the special circumstances surrounding this group of patients. We have always understood that we need to offer more than just assisted reproduction treatments with high success rates. These women come to us after a long process of reflection and from the outset need understanding and support as their decision has not been an easy one. In addition, during the treatment using donor sperm from our bank, there are special circumstances for single women.

In addition to the scrupulous selection process and then allocation of a donor, we offer the mother-to-be choices between insemination techniques or In vitro fertilisation. The special emotional, financial, and work-related circumstances of each case will help in the choice of one technique over another. Our goal is very clear: to make the patient’s journey as short and as pleasant as possible from the moment when she decides to become a single mother to when her child is born.

For more information go to: Single parenting