After going through multiple IVF cycles, my wife and I were blessed with a beautiful baby girl; for medical reasons we underwent reciprocal IVF where I carried her embryo with a donor sperm. 

Today we went to register her birth and were told that we could not both be listed as Mother on the birth certificate and only I could be listed as Mother (having given birth) and my wife was to be listed as Parent. When we questioned this with the registrar we were told ‘That’s just the way it is’ and that ‘….No other same sex couples had ever had a problem and had just accepted it’ 

In a world where we are fortunate enough to both be mothers to our daughter, why can we not both be legally listed as such; why does my wife have to be listed as ‘Parent’ or why can’t we be listed as ‘Parent 1 and Parent 2’. I think it is wholly unfair that we are forced to define one of us as the mother (without choice which one) and the other as a parent, creating a sense of inequality between us and nullifying my wife’s key role as a mother to our daughter. 

This needs to change! It needs to be bought to more peoples attention and the rights of same sex couples to be identified legally as 2 mothers or 2 fathers should not be overlooked any more. Our daughter deserves to have both of her mothers listed as such on her birth certificate.