Proud Conception Podcast

In this expert episode, I sit down with Stewart Dalley, a lawyer at Dalley Sundar who specialises in queer family formation in Aotearoa New Zealand. Stewart has both lived and professional experience in this space: he has three daughters of his own through surrogacy, and his work has shaped the legal landscape for queer families in ways many of us have benefited from without even knowing it. Stewa...

In this episode of Proud Conception, I'm joined by Amy and Rochelle, a lesbian couple who have been together since 2006 and married since 2008, long before marriage equality. They are mums to Josh, now 12, and Alex, now 8. We start in the present, with what it actually looks like to raise children in a queer whānau as their kids get older. Amy and Rochelle talk openly about how they present th...

In this episode of Proud Conception, I’m joined by Rose, a mum of two who is parenting well beyond the early years, with one child in their mid-teens and another entering adolescence. We go right back to the beginning of Rose and her wife’s journey to parenthood including the enormous and complex decision to come off mental health medication in order to try for a baby. Rose speaks openly about a p...

Today we are joined by Kate Zame and we’re getting into the nitty gritty of traditional surrogacy—not just what it is and how it differs from gestational surrogacy, but what it actually looks like when you’re living it. Kate and her wife Kelly have their own beautiful rainbow path to parenthood but this episode is about the couple’s most recent experience with Kelly being a surrogate for a queer c...

In this episode of Proud Conception , I’m joined by Claire, someone who has become one of my closest friends and a huge part of the reason this podcast exists at all! Claire shares the story of how she and her wife Marissa moved in and out of the idea of parenthood over time: joining the fertility clinic waitlist early, travelling overseas, deciding not to have children when they reached the top o...

In our third expert episode, we sit down with Andy Leggat, a health psychologist at Fertility Associates, for a focused conversation about counselling for LGBTQ+ people using donated sperm, eggs, embryos or surrogacy via a fertility clinic to grow their families. We talk about what counselling is actually for in a fertility clinic context and why Andy prefers the term implications counselling when...

This week on Proud Conception, we meet John, who alongside his husband Nick, embarked on a journey to fatherhood that required immense tenacity and resilience. After ruling out adoption and international options, their path took a beautiful turn when John’s sister offered to be their egg donor. With Nick providing the sperm, their son Emerson would share a biological connection to both sides of th...

This week on Proud Conception, we hear from Emily, an egg donor who felt called to action after stumbling across a Facebook post from a queer couple hoping to become parents. What began as a moment of curiosity quickly grew into a heartfelt commitment to support another whānau’s dream of having a child. In this kōrero, Emily shares the full arc of her donation journey: how she connected with the i...

This week on Proud Conception, we meet Olivia, wife to Karen and mama to four-year-old Rafael. Their path to parenthood took many turns: from working with Oranga Tamariki to potentially care for a relative’s child, to trying at-home inseminations with a personal sperm donor, and finally to conceiving Rafael through IUI with an unknown clinic donor. Olivia shares candidly about the heartbreaks and...

This week, I’m thrilled to share our second expert episode with the incredible Dr. Olivia Stuart of Fertility Associates. Olivia is a gynaecologist, obstetrician, and fertility subspecialist meaning she can walk alongside individuals and couples from their initial fertility consultations through to the birth of their pēpi. Olivia came highly recommended by so many of you in the rainbow parenting c...

This week on Proud Conception , we sit down with Oli—a non-binary solo parent to a spirited two-and-a-half-year-old, Francis. Oli’s conception journey has a bit of everything: fertility clinics, two different clinic donors, IUI and IVF, and finally, success through a low-tech at-home insemination with a known donor met through a mutual friend. Alongside the logistics of conceiving, Oli navigated p...

This week’s episode features Laura, a two-time gestational surrogate with a powerful story and a big heart. Laura has carried a pregnancy before for two gay dads and is now five weeks pregnant again with surrogate pēpi number two for a different set of dads, former MP and broadcaster Tamati Coffey and his partner Tim. Many folks in the LGBTQ+ community are just missing one vital piece of the biolo...

This week’s guest slid into my DMs and boy am I glad she did! Tayla, fiancé to Jess and mummy to 3-year-old Angus, is raw, real and so relatable. In this episode, she takes us through the step-by-step of at-home insemination with hilarious detail and finding their sperm donor through a Facebook donation group; an approach she jokingly calls the “low maintenance way to have a baby.” She shares the...

In this episode of Proud Conception, we speak with Marty, who is husband to Mike (for 30 years!), and dad to their son Xavier, who’s now 18. Their family’s journey began before marriage equality, at a time when adoption and surrogacy were limited pathways for queer couples in Aotearoa. Instead, Marty and Mike pursued permanent foster care which led to Xavier joining their whānau when he was four y...

In our first expert episode of the season, we sit down with Dr. George Parker, senior lecturer of health service delivery at Victoria University of Wellington. With a clinical background in midwifery and a PhD in sociology, George has dedicated their career to making perinatal spaces safer and more inclusive for rainbow whānau. We talk about the complexities of LGBTQ+ parenthood, the importance of...

In this conversation on Proud Conception, we speak with Camila, a queer parent originally from Argentina and now based in Ōtautahi. We discuss her international love story with wife Hannah, the logistics of building a family with a known donor and using low tech, at-home insemination techniques, having a supportive GP, forming a written agreement with the donor, and the importance of community sup...

In this episode of Proud Conception, we speak with Lou about life in Christchurch with her wife Libby, their two boys, and Libby’s niece. Lou shares their journey using a local fertility clinic, navigating multiple rounds of donor selection, and making tough decisions after several unsuccessful IUI attempts. She openly discusses some challenges during the mandated counselling sessions and the role...

In this episode of Proud Conception we speak with Steph, a queer parent from Germany now living in New Zealand, about her journey to parenthood with her wife Kat.  Steph discusses the challenges faced in Germany's legal landscape for LGBTQ+ families, the emotional rollercoaster of fertility treatments, the complexities of using donor sperm and the practicalities of paying for these very expens...

Welcome to Proud Conception! In this inaugural episode, we hear from Jess — a cis woman from Australia now living in Aotearoa with her wife Lauren, a trans woman, and their two boys. Jess shares their journey through infertility, IVF, and cross-border conception. She shares about navigating Lauren’s gender transition alongside their family-building plans, how they talk to their kids about identity...

Welcome to Proud Conception, a podcast that explores the diverse parenthood journeys of LGBTQ+ families. Hosted by Rachael Gresson, each episode dives into real stories of parenthood, focusing on the lived experiences of queer parents as they navigate the path to building their families. Keep listening for the expert interviews as well where we hear from the people supporting these paths to parent...