The comprehensive guide for single women interested in proactively becoming a mother—includes the essential tools needed for parenting on your own, how best to follow through on your decision, and insight about answering the child’s questions and needs over time. Choosing Single Motherhood, written by a longtime journalist and Choice Mother (a woman who chooses to conceive or adopt without a life partner), will become the indispensable tool for any woman considering becoming a single mother by choice. This guide offers both support and insight, based on extensive up-to-date research, advice from child experts and family therapists, as well as interviews with more than one hundred single women. This book explores common questions and concerns of women facing this decision, including: • Can I afford to do this? • Should I wait longer to see if life turns a new corner? • How do Choice Mothers handle the stress of solo parenting? • What the research says about growing up in a single-parent household • How to answer a child’s “daddy” questions • The facts about adoption, anonymous donor insemination, and finding a known donor • How the children of pioneering Choice Mothers feel about their lives Written in a lively style that never sugarcoats or sweeps problems under the rug, Choosing Single Motherhood is the thinking woman's guide that covers every topic a future solo mom needs, clearly, concisely, and with a great deal of heart.