S9 E13: Research, Representation & the Realities of Donor Conception with Laura Runnels

Written By Katie Bryan

Laura Runnels knew from a young age that solo motherhood was a path she was willing to take. What she couldn’t have known was exactly how that path would unfold, from exploring known donation to ultimately using a sperm bank, conceiving at home, and later deciding whether to grow her family again.

In this episode, Laura and I talk about her path to becoming a solo mom to two donor-conceived children, including some of the less conventional routes she explored along the way and the questions that came up when she began considering a second child.

We also dig into the work Laura is doing now in the donor conception community. Through the Donor Conception Journal Club, she makes peer-reviewed donor conception research more accessible while encouraging readers to think critically about what the research can and cannot tell us. And as a co-founder of Parts of Me, she is working to expand the range of donor-conceived experiences represented in books, media, arts, and culture.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Laura’s early certainty that she wanted to become a mother, even if she did it on her own

  • Her experience searching for a known donor, including using dating apps specifically for that purpose

  • Her eventual decision to use a sperm bank and her experience conceiving through at-home insemination

  • How she thought about finances, capacity, family size, and the possibility of having a second or third child

  • Why donor conception research can be difficult for the average person to access and interpret, and how the Donor Conception Journal Club is helping bridge that gap

  • The importance of seeing a much wider range of donor-conceived experiences represented in books, movies, and culture through Parts of Me

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Laura:

Katie Bryan
Next

S9 E12: What a Donor-Conceived Person and Therapist Wants SMBCs to Know with Kat Boldt