LGBT parents meeting

A special same-sex parents meeting highlighting maternity issues for LGBT couples took place in Lewisham.

Pic: Irena Rastegaeva

LGBTQI*forum was a free to attend event to provide information about maternity issues, including adoption, delivering babies or receiving medical services.

The LGBT community in Lewisham arranged the meeting with Giuseppe Labriola, Head of Midwifery in Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Toyin Adeyinka, Midwife Voice Partnership representative, and other NHS representatives.

Carolyn Robertson, Pic: Irena Rastegaeva

One of the event’s guests, author Carolyn Robertson, announced publication of her new book and did a brief reading from some of her published work.

Susan, from LGBT Hate Crime Community, said: “We just started, and we wish to see how much we can help each other in terms of experience. These meetings are mainly created to extend the networking possibilities, to exchange some important experiences in terms of LGBT maternity.”

She alsoshared material with useful information on maternity issues for same-sex couples published by Stonewall. They are “Pregnant Pause: A guide for lesbians on how to get pregnant’ and “A guide for gay dads”.

Pic: Irena Rastegaeva

Stonewall aims to empower LGBT people to be their authentic selves, enabling them to realise and achieve their full potential to create positive change.

They also support individuals to understand how they can make a difference for LGBT people at work, home and in their communities.

The main purpose of the meeting was to understand the status and the challenges faced by some same-sex couples, but also to get acquainted.

Susan said, “We need to share our knowledge, to raise awareness about LGBT maternity. It happens people meet me and my wife somewhere in a public place and come to get acquainted to ask questions relevant to our experiences. They simply do not know where, and who, to ask those questions. This is why we decided to create this social platform for good conversations, getting responses to some important enquiries and giving some feedback.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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