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Background: The number of planned two-mother families are growing as legislation about assisted reproduction technique (ART) changes. Since 2005 two-mother families are offered ART within the Swedish National Health Care (SOSFS 2005:17), and about 120 female couples underwent ART with donated sperm during the first years after this legislation. Although there is an increasing amount of research on planned two-mother families, there is still limited knowledge of what early parental support these mothers may need.

Aim: The aim was to study same-sex mother’s experiences and perceptions of family forming and early parental support.

Methods: Participants was recruited by nurses at child health care centers and via Internet. The sampling method was both purposeful and theoretical. Twenty mothers (birth-mothers & non-birth mothers) in a same-sex relationship, who conceived through ART at Swedish clinics participated and semi-structured interviews were performed. Open questions about parenthood, parental support from health care professionals and parental leave were posed. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data collection and data analysis were performed in parallel. The analyze strategy was constant comparative analysis in tree steps, open-, axial and selective coding.

Results: The result describe mother in same-sex relationships experiences of forming a family through assisted reproductions techniques at Swedish clinics.  Their path to parenthood, how the mothers faced different decisions, and their experiences of early parental support from health care professionals in antenatal and child health care is described. Moreover the mothers’ perception of parenting and their thoughts about gender equality and parental leave is described.

Keywords: two-mother families, assisted reproduction technique, experiences, antenatal and child health care, parenthood, parental support