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Facing motherhood alone can be a panicky, if exciting, time whether you have deliberately chosen to do this, or not. Your pregnancy may have come as a surprise, or it may have been a longed-for result: these days, more and more single women in their thirties and forties are choosing motherhood alone, sometimes using donor insemination. Telling people you’re pregnant can sometimes be tricky, whether the baby is planned or not, but the good news is that there is plenty of support and advice available. While one in four families in Britain today is headed by a single parent¹ (that’s 1.75 million families) most of these happen because of marriage breakdown (usually once you have kids). You may, then, find it helpful to seek out specific support if you are single and tackling pregnancy and birth on your own. Even if you’re not a ‘joiner’, building up some kind of network once you are a parent can make a huge difference.

Where to go for help:

One Parent Families 020 7428 5400 www.oneparentfamilies.org.uk Parent-run charity Gingerbread 020 7488 9300 www.gingerbread.org.uk

Further reading:

Single Mothers by Choice: A Guidebook For Single Women Who Are Considering or have Chosen Motherhood by Jane Mattes (Three Rivers Press, US, 1997) This is an American book, but many issues are the same, wherever you are in the world. www.mattes.home.pipeline.com