Att bli förälder på förbjuden väg - en kvalitativ studie om frivilligt ensamstående mödrar som skaffar barn genom assisterad befruktning i Sverige

Sammanfattning: Author: Lovisa Ottoson & Lykke Olsson Title: To become a parent in a forbidden way - a qualitative study on single mothers by choice in Sweden who have children through assisted reproduction Supervisor: Roberto Scaramuzzino Assessor: Frans Oddner The purpose of this study is to examine how single mothers by choice experience that norms in our society affects them. It is interesting to see how the norms and values in society is affecting these women based on the fact that assisted reproduction for single women not is legal in Sweden. Because that it is not legal in Sweden there are women who have gone abroad to become pregnant through assisted reproduction. Therefore and because their family constellation is a minority in society we found it interesting to see how the women experienced that society was treating them. We have used qualitative method and semistructured interviews, and in total we have interviewed seven women. We have analyzed our material using queer theory and our focus has been on heteronormativity. The age of the women was from 30-43 years. The women's children were aged 1-4 years. The study has shown that single women are choosing to have children through assisted reproduction for several more reasons than that their biological clock was ticking away. One of the women called it an approaching lifestyle and therefore believed that more young women are going to choose this way of having children. All of the women that we interviewed said that they had a rich social network and felt that they had enough support and help from family and friends. For many of the women it was important to have a male role model in their childrens life. The women had different ways of handling that the child did not have a father and several of them talked about the importance of including as many family members as possible into their family. Most of the women felt that they had received good response from their family, friends and acquaintances but some told that it was hard to tell them about their decision. Most women experienced treatment from health care and social services as positive. But they also experienced lack of knowledge and lack of experience concerning their family constellation. When talking about negative attitudes several women lifted the samples that they had to get from the Swedish health care before they went abroad to begin their attempts. In connection with the samples several of the women experienced resistance and were told that they were denied help just because they were singles. Several of the women experienced it even tedious and discriminatory having to go abroad in order to become pregnant. Many of the women also said that much focus in the society was about that families usually include two parents. Some of the women also told that the traditional family with mother, father and children was clearly represented in for exampel preschools and parenting groups. When we have analyzed our material we also found that the women in some ways have assimilated to the society. For example they have assimilated regarding male role models or if to get siblings to their child. We could also see that the community have maintained its standards and values through heteronormativity. Heteronormativity stands strong in society through for example laws that regulate the womens rights to assisted reproduction. Several of the women told us that they met resistance from authoritys in Sweden when they had to visit hospitals before they got pregnant. Keywords: Donor conception, single mother by choice, single mother by donor, solo mothers, how solo mothers are treated, treatment