Desiring To Be a Non-Birth Mother. Lesbian Women Narrating non Bio-Normative Maternal Identity in Italy

Over the past three decades, Western societies have witnessed transformations in lesbian motherhood. This study examines the emergence of de novo lesbian families in Italy, focusing on nonbirth lesbian mothers (NBLMs). It addresses a gap in existing literature by exploring how NBLMs construct their sense of self as mothers, moving beyond the focus on decision-making processes within lesbian couples planning parenthood. The research is situated within the Italian context, where parenting remains influenced by heteronormativity and monomaternalism. Using a qualitative approach, the study analyses retrospective narratives of 13 Italian NBLMs in lesbian families. It examines how these women articulate the emergence of maternal desire and anchor their self-definition as mothers, detaching motherhood from its biological roots. The study identifies a narrative structure situating these accounts along a continuum, from rejections of normative maternity to strategic adoptions of traditional family codes. Participants navigate between these poles, engaging in a dialectic that intertwines counter-narratives on motherhood with processes of norm re-appropriation. The findings illuminate the normalization of unconventional routes to maternity, and reveal metamorphoses of parenting paradigms and resistance to hegemonic motherhood narratives. Results contribute to nuanced comprehensions of contemporary familial configurations and foster pluralistic understandings of experiences within the maternal category.