Deborah Foster

The Experiences of Planned Two-mother Families: How to Grow a Lesbian Family Deborah Foster

What do you call a lesbian couple who chooses toconceive and raise a child together?-A PlannedTwo-Mother Family. This book focuses on six lesbiancouples who have grown a family by having a childwithin their relationship. By focusing exclusively onplanned two-mother families, for the first time, thistype of family has been explored in depth. This studylooked at what family meant by having each membertell their family stories and draw pictures of theirfamily. Five broad themes emerged from theinterviews. Overall, the families describedthemselves as functioning well, with children movingnormally through developmental milestones, whileexperiencing a high level of parental involvement,and a close parental partnership with equal sharingof roles and responsibilities. Unique also to thisbook is that the author uses the lens of her ownfamily's experiences to heuristically explore othersimilar families. Throughout this book the metaphorof the tree has been used to guide the reader throughthe journey of how to grow a lesbian family. Thisbook will be of great interest to anyone studying thefamily, as well as those interested in the use ofself and metaphor in research.