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The Lesbian Childbearing Experience: Assessing Developmental Tasks
Author(s) -
Wismont Judith M.,
Reame Nancy E.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
image: the journal of nursing scholarship
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1547-5069
pISSN - 0743-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1989.tb00118.x
Subject(s) - lesbian , psychosocial , psychology , sociocultural evolution , developmental psychology , identity (music) , donor insemination , pregnancy , social psychology , sociology , psychotherapist , artificial insemination , physics , anthropology , acoustics , psychoanalysis , biology , genetics
Selected nursing theories about the childbearing experience are examined as they apply to the assessment of the pregnant lesbian couple. A review of the women's health literature suggests that the lesbian pregnancy experience is characterized by the use of donor insemination, social discrimination and a dependence on peer rather than family networks for social support. Based on these sociocultural constraints, the authors propose that the lesbian couple is faced with greater barriers than are heterosexual parents to achieving the developmental tasks of “safe passage” and acceptance by others of the pregnancy. Future research should document how a lesbian identity affects the pregnant woman's relationship with her mother, her partner's psychosocial development as a parent and the maternal‐infant attachment process. Nursing guidelines for assessing parental role development are presented.