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Authors: Sarah Rayner
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sight. ‘All these billboards are a bit tactless, surely. I mean not
everyone can have a baby, can they?’
‘You’d be amazed what’s on offer,’ says Lou. ‘Many people will do anything to have a child.’
They are surrounded by the evidence: there are stands promoting every imaginable aspect of becoming a gay or ‘alternative’ parent. There’s the North London Lesbian Midwifery
Clinic, the Birmingham Sperm Bank, the Pink Adoption Agency, the Centre for Surrogate Parenting, not to mention umpteen family law specialists and lobby groups campaigning to stamp out homophobia.
There are products too – assisted conception kits so you can inseminate yourself at home, vitamins and minerals to help. You can even buy a blow-up birthing pool to take away the same
day.
It’s a lot to take in, and after weeks of barely seeing anyone, Lou finds it a shock to be amongst so many people. Her head is swimming.
Anna slips a protective arm around her. ‘Hey, how are you feeling? You’ve been standing quite a while.’
‘I’m OK.’
‘Hmm. You look a bit pale. Shall we go and find the room where they’re having the talk, so you can sit down?’
‘Good idea.’Lou allows Anna to guide her carefully through the throng.
* * *
‘That coffee’s gone straight through me,’ says Cath. ‘Find us a seat while I nip to the Ladies?’
Once again Rich does as he is bid, but as the conference room fills he feels increasingly uneasy; he must be outnumbered by women a hundred to one. He can only see one other guy, and he is busy
making notes in a pad so is probably a journalist. It brings home to him something that’s been playing on his mind; it’s one aspect of having a child that he and Cath haven’t
spoken of. It’s fundamental, yet he has no idea how to broach the subject.
What if she were to get ill again? he worries. Has he got it in him to be a single father? Because should the worst happen, there is the distinct possibility that this – a world where
he’s constantly surrounded by women – might be his future. Parenthood is a huge commitment anyway; for him it could be gargantuan. He tries to imagine whether he could be the kind of
person – that strong, that wise, that unselfish – who could bring up a kid alone. What would happen about childcare? His job? Money?
He struggles to bring his focus back to the room. Before him is a panel of speakers; to their left, a podium. It all looks very formal and intimidating, and he’s not even sure why Cath was
keen to come to this particular talk. He slumps down in his chair, hoping to make himself less conspicuous.
Shortly his wife returns, sits down next to him, and the lights dim.
Oh well, he thinks, I guess it does no harm to get clued up about our options. Hopefully the answers will come in due course.
Next, a tall man with white hair, deep-brown skin and wearing a well-cut suit gets to his feet and goes to the stand.
‘Good morning,’ he says. ‘I am Dr Khalid Hassan. I am the Managing Director of the Marylebone Fertility Clinic, and it is an honour for me to join you today to tell you about a
very special form of IVF. It’s a subject close to my heart, a treatment with remarkable success rates which is helping many couples – both gay and straight – and indeed single
women’ – he smiles at the audience – ‘to have children.’
He flicks up a slide. A giant toddler now beams at Rich too.
‘Parenthood is the right of everyone,’ continues Dr Hassan. ‘And we have the technologies to achieve that dream.’
Is it? thinks Rich. I’m not sure I think of it as my right, not any more . . . And what if you’re sixty-five? Or a psychopath? But before he has time to analyse, he’s swept up
again. Dr Hassan’s voice is assured but gentle, his whole demeanour exuding avuncular geniality.
‘In particular, I’m here to speak to you about how two women can make babies together.’ The doctor chuckles.
Blimey, thinks Rich. Then
everyone can have a baby, can they?’
‘You’d be amazed what’s on offer,’ says Lou. ‘Many people will do anything to have a child.’
They are surrounded by the evidence: there are stands promoting every imaginable aspect of becoming a gay or ‘alternative’ parent. There’s the North London Lesbian Midwifery
Clinic, the Birmingham Sperm Bank, the Pink Adoption Agency, the Centre for Surrogate Parenting, not to mention umpteen family law specialists and lobby groups campaigning to stamp out homophobia.
There are products too – assisted conception kits so you can inseminate yourself at home, vitamins and minerals to help. You can even buy a blow-up birthing pool to take away the same
day.
It’s a lot to take in, and after weeks of barely seeing anyone, Lou finds it a shock to be amongst so many people. Her head is swimming.
Anna slips a protective arm around her. ‘Hey, how are you feeling? You’ve been standing quite a while.’
‘I’m OK.’
‘Hmm. You look a bit pale. Shall we go and find the room where they’re having the talk, so you can sit down?’
‘Good idea.’Lou allows Anna to guide her carefully through the throng.
* * *
‘That coffee’s gone straight through me,’ says Cath. ‘Find us a seat while I nip to the Ladies?’
Once again Rich does as he is bid, but as the conference room fills he feels increasingly uneasy; he must be outnumbered by women a hundred to one. He can only see one other guy, and he is busy
making notes in a pad so is probably a journalist. It brings home to him something that’s been playing on his mind; it’s one aspect of having a child that he and Cath haven’t
spoken of. It’s fundamental, yet he has no idea how to broach the subject.
What if she were to get ill again? he worries. Has he got it in him to be a single father? Because should the worst happen, there is the distinct possibility that this – a world where
he’s constantly surrounded by women – might be his future. Parenthood is a huge commitment anyway; for him it could be gargantuan. He tries to imagine whether he could be the kind of
person – that strong, that wise, that unselfish – who could bring up a kid alone. What would happen about childcare? His job? Money?
He struggles to bring his focus back to the room. Before him is a panel of speakers; to their left, a podium. It all looks very formal and intimidating, and he’s not even sure why Cath was
keen to come to this particular talk. He slumps down in his chair, hoping to make himself less conspicuous.
Shortly his wife returns, sits down next to him, and the lights dim.
Oh well, he thinks, I guess it does no harm to get clued up about our options. Hopefully the answers will come in due course.
Next, a tall man with white hair, deep-brown skin and wearing a well-cut suit gets to his feet and goes to the stand.
‘Good morning,’ he says. ‘I am Dr Khalid Hassan. I am the Managing Director of the Marylebone Fertility Clinic, and it is an honour for me to join you today to tell you about a
very special form of IVF. It’s a subject close to my heart, a treatment with remarkable success rates which is helping many couples – both gay and straight – and indeed single
women’ – he smiles at the audience – ‘to have children.’
He flicks up a slide. A giant toddler now beams at Rich too.
‘Parenthood is the right of everyone,’ continues Dr Hassan. ‘And we have the technologies to achieve that dream.’
Is it? thinks Rich. I’m not sure I think of it as my right, not any more . . . And what if you’re sixty-five? Or a psychopath? But before he has time to analyse, he’s swept up
again. Dr Hassan’s voice is assured but gentle, his whole demeanour exuding avuncular geniality.
‘In particular, I’m here to speak to you about how two women can make babies together.’ The doctor chuckles.
Blimey, thinks Rich. Then
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