Being a ‘good’ parent: single women reflecting upon ‘selfishness’ and ‘risk’ when pursuing motherhood through sperm donation

Drawing upon the narratives of 23 single heterosexual women in the UK thinking about and pursuing motherhood through sperm donation, this paper explores how solo motherhood can be construed as a ‘risk’ to the identity of a ‘good’ mother. It shows how, for these women, solo motherhood was a departure from an imagined life of having a child within the context of a stable relationship and was a prospect viewed with much ambivalence and uncertainty....