“We set up The LGBT Mummies Tribe to educate, share and celebrate women and their families”
BY THE LGBT MUMMIES TRIBE, ILLUSTRATION BY SKETCHMYTRIBE
I’m Laura-Rose, a 33-year-old, married lesbian mother of two. My wife and I have been together for 12 years, married for eight.
We had IUI treatment through the The Centre For Reproductive And Health (CRGH) in London to have our children Dottie, five years old and Stanley, now 18 months. We used the same private unknown donor and it took us five cycles (and one miscarriage) to have our daughter and two cycles to fall pregnant with our son – we have spent in excess of £25k to get pregnant.
THE LGBT MUMMIES
I came up with the idea of The LGBT Mummies Tribe a while back after I found I was regularly being contacted by single LGBTQI women and couples through social media or friends who knew about our journey to becoming mothers and wanted advice regarding costs, clinics and our experience of becoming parents.
After several years, I asked, “Why am I giving away this information to help a few, when we could do this as a business and really help others within our community?”
For me, there’s no real central point for advice and community for LGBTQI female couples in the fertility industry – both here and internationally.
That’s why we set up The LGBT Mummies Tribe to “educate, share and celebrate” LGBTQI women and their families as well as providing non-professional advice on clinics, sperm banks, treatments, costs and the options available to same-sex parents.
A GROWING TRIBE
A big part of it was to provide a safe haven and community to connect families worldwide on their journey to motherhood, as well as those who already had children. In less than a year, we’ve reached over 7.5k followers worldwide – all real life mums, businesses and allies!
Since our first meeting in September 2018, we’ve also:
- Taken part in the Stonewall 30th anniversary campaign
- Been in The Metro newspaper speaking about our family
- Been on Chewing The Cud, an LGBT podcast
- Have been invited to 10 Downing Street for their Pride Reception
- Interviewed on BCFM radio by Pride host Saski Singer
- Our website is due to launch this October 2019
- …and lots more to come!
JOIN THE TRIBE
We have our second UK meet coming up, with over 90 LGBT Mummies (and friends) booked to attend, there’ll also be plenty of LGBTQI brands there for members to meet.
Both my wife and I are really excited at the momentum The LGBT Mummies Tribe has created in just over a year and, once our website is live and providing a meeting point for LGBTQI women to communicate with each other and access information, we hope to grow even bigger! (We are already getting requests for meets abroad… #WatchThisSpace)
The LGBT Mummies Tribe UK next meet up will be held on Sunday 1 September 2019. Visit their Instagram here for details, or email thelgbtmummiestribe@outlook.com for further information
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