Suddenly there was a head being pulled out with a mass of jet black hair and there he was

Suddenly there was a head being pulled out with a mass of jet black hair and there he was.”Mr Barlow added: “At first we didn’t dare touch Aspen and Saffron because we didn’t know we could.”Here were these jewels we couldn’t touch so we both just looked and stared at them They are so different. Mr Drewitt, a former nurse, said: “Aspen’s head was tangled up with Saffron’s feet and the obstetrician said he was getting them out straight away. Rosalind was rushed into theatre and we were told to scrub up and put on gowns and masks, so we changed really quickly and ran up to the operating theatre. The High Court has recently ruled that a gay man can be considered a member of his partner’s family, with the legal rights that such a relationship entails.The babies were delivered four weeks early after doctors expressed concern over their position in the womb. They had tried to adopt but were turned down by Social Services and, after investigating surrogacy in England, they went to the US, which is more sympathetic to gay couples.The announcement that they were expecting the babies caused outrage in some circles, but the men pointed out that the whole concept of the traditional family was changing. “We have a family and that is enough for us.”The birth of the two babies, in a hospital in Modesto, California, was the culmination of a four-year battle by the two men, from Danbury in Essex, to become parents. “There has been so much prejudice and criticism about what we have done but none of that matters now,” Mr Drewitt said.

Aspen and Saffron were created from eggs donated by one woman, fertilised by one of the two men and carried by a second woman, Rosalind Bellamy.The original birth certificates, with the name of the twins’ surrogate mother and biological father, will be sealed by the registrar and replaced by a second set, which show Mr Barlow and Mr Drewitt as the parents.But with the babies just a few days old, both men said thoughts of birth certificates and citizenship were not their priority at the moment. But as an unmarried couple they have no right to pass on their British nationality to their son and daughter.The ruling made them the first gay couple in Britain to father their own children using in vitro fertilisation. Barrie Drewitt, 32, and Tony Barlow, 35, together for 11 years, were both present when the twins were delivered by Caesarean section at a hospital in California.
The US Supreme Court had already ruled that the millionaire businessmen, who recently sold their successful medical and consumer testing business, could be named as parent one and parent two on the children’s birth certificates – with no mention of the mother. “Instead we should look for ways to help mums cope with the new demands they’re faced with.”. THE FIRST British gay couple to win the right to be named on the birth certificate as parents of surrogate babies must now fight to obtain British citizenship for the twins, who were born last Thursday in the United States.

Less than half had done any exercise in the first three months of motherhood. Nearly two out of three missed having time with their partner and only one in threehad managed to make love during the same period.Joy at their child’s birth failed to offset the anxieties of one in four women who admitted they only began to enjoy their baby after about two months.”We must be careful not to push the mum `performance bar’ too high and make mums feel like failures”, said Sarah Wrench, marketing manager for Johnson & Johnson. “Some women consider being a full-time mother to be a `luxury’ they cannot afford,” said Dr Marks. “This can result in feelings of inadequacy and frustration at not doing justice to either a paid job or the job of being a good mother.”Women neglected themselves and their partners in their efforts to live up to increasing demands. They feel guilty leaving the office on time to collect their children and bad if they have to take their child to the doctor.”Nearly nine out of ten mothers felt they could not afford not to work. More than one in three felt it was embarrassing to admit to wanting to give up a career to be a mother.”The `work’ of a mother is becoming increasingly devalued in society,” said Dr Marks.