Experts explain why more people are becoming single parents by choice.
Plus, three women share their experiences first-hand.
Jane Mattes is a psychotherapist and the founder of Single Mothers By Choice.
To the researchers, this indicates more openness to single parent by choice as a parenting path.
Ultimately, she says she decided to pursue IVF.
Having thefinancial resources to devote to the processalso factored into her decision.
Christine Grange, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of psychology at Clayton State University.
I had always just assumed it was the other way around.
So, Kelly moved forward.
She went alone to her appointments for retrieving the eggs and then implanting them.
The holy crap, Im really doing this moment for me was the embryo transfer, Kelly says.
The eggs could sit in a freezer for however long I wanted to pay for them to be there.
Then, they are fertilized, and after that, they are transferred into the uterus.
If it works, Id become pregnant.
That was a real moment for me, but it wasnt one I was freaked out by.
I felt excited to be starting my family, not worried.
Christine Grange, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of psychology at Clayton State University.
Mattes says she founded the organization in 1981, shortly after becoming a single parent herself.
Because this was before the Internet, her new social web connection of solo parents communicated through snail mail.
Mattes says shes witnessed more people becoming single parents by choice through the growth of the organization.
And shes far from the only one.
Theyre also seeing examples of what being a single parent by choice looks like in action.
And that combination is shifting parenthood as we know it.
I realized how important having good foster parents was.
When she was 26, she decided to become a foster parent herself.
I had a house and income.
It was something I could really do.
Initially, Moore was solely focused on fostering.
Now, shes adopted three kids through foster care.
Theres a whole big community out there that makes you feel not alone, she says.
Like Moore,Elizabeth Friedlandis also a single foster and adoptive mom.
Jack, now her son, was her fifth placement.
I fell in love with him from the second I laid eyes on him, Friedland says.
When the opportunity to adopt him arose, she wholeheartedly said yes.
But I was thrilled at the chance to be his forever mom, she says.
(She also recently adopted a baby girl.)
But through social media, shes become connected to both single foster parents and single adoptive parents.
The stigma of single parenthood
Its important to acknowledge that single-parenthood still a stigma attached to it.
Moore says its a viewpoint many still have and that shes regularly confronted with.
There is a lot of criticism out there.
Dr. Grange says this is not only an unfair and problematic viewpoint, its an inaccurate one.
She also points out that portrayals of single parenthood in the media vary by race.
In Hollywood and in the media, theres a kind of glamorizing of white women who have kids independently.
But that same treatment isnt given to Black women, Dr. Grange says.
This is a huge misconception.
Both Friedland and Moore emphasize that single parenthood isnt easy.
The hardest part for me is the loneliness, Moore says.
Both say logistically and financially, it would be easier to have a partner.
But neither says they regret their choice.
I feel so much stronger because of this.
*Last name has been withheld to protect her privacy.
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