Lesbian baby boom in Brisbane

Lesbians have been having babies forever, but the year 2007 seems to be producing a bumper crop. August has seen Kath and Meredith of Rocklea and Carman and Shev of West End welcome little boys into their families.

Molly and Louise of Yeronga are expecting twins in December, and Yasmin and Justine of Highgate Hill are expecting their baby to arrive in January. Brisbane is getting to be a big city, so no doubt there are other lesbians expecting babies here soon.

How do they do it?

Lesbians can get pregnant in a variety of ways. Sometimes a male friend will agree to be a sperm donor. Sometimes an unknown donor will be selected from a sperm bank.

Getting the spermatozoa to the egg is the tricky bit. Methods include carrying the warm sperm in a jar from the donor's house to the prospective mothers' house. It then gets inserted by needle-less syringe or tube as near to the cervix as possible. This method requires home monitoring of the ovulation cycle and a good aim.

Another method is to enlist the help of a friendly fertility clinic. In general, lesbians in Queensland can get help from clinics, but this is at the discretion of the individual gynaecologists at the clinics. Discrimination on the basis of relationship status or sexuality in the provision of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is exempted, so that they are free to discriminate by not providing the service to single women (whether straight or lesbian) or lesbian couples. Some doctors are more willing than others to provide the service, so shop around. And some doctors will put some of the costs through Medicare, some will not. Again, shop around.

The term “IVF” to describe what these clinics do is a misnomer. The more accurate term is “ART” or Assisted Reproductive Technologies. These technologies fall into 3 basic groups:

• Help with monitoring the ovulation cycle and inserting fresh or thawed sperm into or near the cervix at the right time of the month
• Ovulation induction involves using drugs which help the woman produce more eggs, and then inserting sperm as above (can lead to multiple births)
• IVF which is when the woman takes drugs to produce more eggs, the eggs are harvested under general anesthetic and put into trays where fresh or thawed sperm is added. These sperm will possibly fertilize some of the eggs, and the resultant cells will divide and become viable embryos. One or more embryos are inserted into the cervix. The embryos may or may not attach and start growing. The remaining embryos can be frozen for future use.

* None of these methods is guaranteed to work.

* Heterosexuals also use these methods sometimes if plain old bonking isn't working.

* Single straight women can also use fertility clinics currently in Queensland

* Other Australian states have varying laws: currently ART is legally available to lesbians in all states except Victoria and South Australia as far as I can ascertain.

* In 2007, Western Australia, ACT and Northern Territory are the only states where a lesbian non-biological parent's name can appear on her child's birth certificate along with the biological parent's.

* See other documents in this website for further details of the ways LGBTs are currently discriminated against in Queensland anno 2007.

Shev Armstrong

photo of lesbian pregnant bellies: Shev Armstrong