Abstract
Childbearing, has been recognized in the literature as a major life event that can invoke many challenges for the woman and her family. Motherhood, either by natural conception (NC) or by egg donation (ED), entails risks as mothers’ psychological health is at high risk, during this crucial period. This systematic review was written with an eye to understand and explore the experience of motherhood between mothers lacking & not, a genetic bond to their embryo. This systematic review was conducted, from June 2021 till November 2021. It encompasses researches with English as a written language, published during the period 2001-2021 and deposited in the UK. Online databases like PubMed & Research Gate were used as a found and the selection criteria were, researches analyzing family building with oocyte donation or surrogacy in heterosexual couples. Adaption and embryo donation were inserted in the exclusion criteria. Ten studies were finally selected and fulfill all inclusion & exclusion criteria of this systematic review. In each age group of children, differences, but also, similarities occurred between ED and NC mothers. Differences were referred mainly to mothers’ psychological adjustment and mother-child interactions. After collating the final 10 studies, it was deduced that the experience of motherhood is almost close for each type of mother (ED or NC-IVF), with ED mothers, usually, face some extra thoughts and feelings towards the child and motherhood in general. Further research is suggested on mothers’ experiences and attitudes after ED, as for now, researches are limited.
Highlights
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes ‘all fertility treatments, in which either eggs or embryos are handled outside a woman’s body [1]’
As the main focus was, to understand and compare motherhood with and without a genetic bond to the embryo, mostly studies that pertain to families created through the process of Egg Donation, Surrogacy, and families formed by natural conception or IVF techniques that mothers’ own gametes were used, have been chosen
Greater levels of psychological adjustment were found for mothers who planned to tell their child about the nature of their origin
Summary
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes ‘all fertility treatments, in which either eggs or embryos are handled outside a woman’s body [1]’. Interest in IVF methods, was already appreciable in the 1890s, when the first known attempt of embryo transplantation was carried out in rabbits [3]. In the Kahoun papyrus of ancient Egyptians, (dated 2200–1950 B.C.) infertility was explained as ‘a disruption in the continuity between the reproductive organs and the digestive tract.’. This result came from some common symptoms different women had experienced and after physical examination. It is not curious that, before the 1890s, people were troubled by the idea of infertility and have been looking for an explanation, considering the lack of knowledge and technology, to understand and answer the cause of the infertility problem [5]
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