"It's time for this groundbreaking guide." — Susan Deitz, author of Single File

Single Mothers by Choice:
A Guidebook For Single Women
Who Are Considering or Have Chosen Motherhood
(Paperback, 243 pages, $15.00, ISBN # 0-8129-2246-8)

Jane Mattes, C.S.W., founded the national organization, Single Mothers by Choice, in 1981. She has been a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City for over twenty-five years and is a single mother by choice. In this book she addresses the many unique issues relevant to making a decision about whether or not to become a single mother by choice, as well as the issues that come afterward — in particular, the "daddy questions." Resource lists for donor insemination and adoption are also included, as are some samples of agreements with a known donor.

Partial contents:

Becoming an SMC by conception

• Conception by donor insemination
• Insemination with an unknown donor
• Insemination with a known donor
• Conception with a sex partner

Becoming an SMC by adoption

• Agency or independent adoption?
• Open or closed adoption?
• Should you adopt a newborn or a toddler or an older child?
• U.S. or foreign adoption?

Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum

• Telling people
• Complications of pregnancy
• The hospital
• How to fill out the birth certificate
• The postpartum period — home alone

The daddy questions

• Preparing for the child's daddy questions
• Handling the daddy questions during each developmental stage
• Dealing with the daddy questions in the community
• If you conceived with someone you know
• If you conceived with an unknown donor

Special child development issues for children of SMCs

• Separation issues
• The importance of a man in a child's life
• Disciplining when there is only one parent

Legal and moral aspects of being an SMC

• Telling the father
• Inheritance rights
• Legal aspects of adoption

Social life and the Single Mother by Choice

• Social life
• Dating
• Marriage

   You can order Single Mothers by Choice: A Guidebook For Single Women Who Are Considering or Have Chosen Motherhood from your local book store, from Amazon.com, or from us by clicking on the shopping cart near the top of this page. There's also an order form enclosed with our brochure.

   To receive our brochure, please send an e-mail to SMC, at smc-office@pipeline.com, and request that we send you the brochure. (Be sure to include your name and postal address.) If you'd prefer to request the brochure by phone or regular mail, you can call our office at any time and leave a message with your name and postal address — the office number is (212) 988-0993 — or mail a note to SMC, P.O. Box 1642, New York, NY 10028.

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