Until recently, parents of donor-conceived children were told by doctors to keep their child’s conception story a secret. Over the past 20 years, however, attitudes towards openness have begun to shift. Australian law now supports identity disclosure when the child turns 18. However, only one state permits “early contact” between donors and their donor offspring. In the absence of legislative mechanisms for achieving early contact, some parents have taken donor linking into their own hands, using a variety of “do-it-yourself” techniques to identify donor relatives. Through interviews with Australian parents, this chapter explores motivations for, and the methods used by, parents to make early contact with their child’s donor relatives. It reflects on how the availability of new technologies has resulted in a relocation of power from fertility clinics to consumers, providing parents and their children with access to information to which they are not (yet) legally entitled.

This chapter takes a bio-psycho-social perspective on the experience of childbirth and first contact with the infant. Historical and contemporary debates about medical interventions in childbirth are discussed as well as evidence for the effectiveness of different approaches to preparation for childbirth and strategies for coping with pain. The setting for birth and contribution of the partner are discussed, as well as theory and research on early contact with the baby, and the experience of premature birth.