Gender Transition as a Parent

Glimpses of Transgender Motherhood

Mother’s Day holds special meaning for trans women with children

The Measure of Our Womanhood?

Motherhood — for many, it’s the deepest manifestation of womanhood. For women growing up without a uterus, the distance between ourselves and motherhood seems the distance between Kansas and Oz, the distance between England and Neverland. Dare we dream of it?

I’ve witnessed three pregnancies and three births up close. I received all three babies into my arms. I’ve watched two amazing cis women do measured breathing through contractions, manage their anxiety, ride through the pain. I watched these women in awe, in adoration, as they brought life into this world from within their wombs. Something I will never do — something my body is not equipped to do.

My first spouse became pregnant at 27. I was merely 20. But I was absolutely delighted. Unsure of my sexuality, unsure of my gender, I had been deeply afraid of never being able to form a family — and here we were.

When my spouse was thirty-four weeks pregnant, we had to drive from Satellite Beach to Tampa (a five-hour drive) to get my Alien Residency documents updated. “Don’t worry,” my spouse told me…