There are many different routes to parenthood. For a growing number of women that route does not involve waiting for a partner to start a family. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two mothers by choice about the joys and challenges of single parenthood. Marie Stern Olsson is from Sweden, where single mothers have only recently been given the same right as couples to access state-funded fertility treatments. She had her son through insemination in 2017. She believes that having a strong support network and a single parent-friendly welfare system made her choice possible. Supriya Deverkonda is based in India, where single people are allowed to adopt children, but there is still a strong stigma around single mothers. In 2013 Supriya decided to adopt a 5-month-old baby, defying cultural stereotypes around traditional family and marriage. Eight years on, she is still having to deal with bureaucratic hurdles and scepticism, but she says she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Produced by Alice Gioia

IMAGE (L) Marie Stern Olsson, courtesy of Marie Stern Olsson (R) Supriya Deverkonda, credit Arti Anand