With Shared Motherhood, both individuals in the couple can both take part in the IVF journey to family as a shared experience right from conception. One partner donates eggs to her partner in IVF treatment, and is the ‘biological mother’. The other partner carries your baby and experiences the pregnancy as the ‘gestational or birth mother’.
This treatment really is all about sharing. One of you will go through the IVF treatment process to produce eggs, our embryology teams will fertilise your eggs with donor sperm and will then look after your embryos until the time when one is ready to be transferred into the womb of the gestational partner who will carry and give birth to your baby.
All of our patients are unique and we will discuss and be guided by you as to how you would like to have your treatment. You may:
CARE have our own bank of frozen donor sperm or you can have treatment with sperm donated by someone you know. Alternatively, if you wish, you can source donated sperm from a sperm bank, either in the UK or overseas. CARE partners with a number of sperm banks. Just let us know if you would like more information about CARE’s sperm donation IVF programme.
Shared Motherhood is a viable and safe treatment option.
“My wife and I decided way back in 2014 that we would love to build our own family. We'd recently got married (one of the first same sex marriages in Kent) and knew this would be our next step….Now Both girls are thriving and ganging up on their mummies! ”
You will likely have lots of questions and a call to our dedicated patient enquiry team is a good place to start. They’ll be able to answer your questions and give you any additional information you might need.
You can call them on 0800 564 2270.
The team at your chosen CARE clinic will also be able to support you at every step of your journey – don’t hesitate to contact them if you have any questions.