It was then that Cramblett learned there may have been a mix-up. Those dreams were dashed in April 2012, when Cramblett ordered more sperm from the chosen donor, for a second child the couple planned on having. Cramblett told the Today Show that they chose a "blond hair, blue-eyed individual" so the child would closely resemble her partner. 29 against Chicago-area Midwest Sperm Bank because, according to the allegations, the clinic artificially inseminated and impregnated her with the wrong sperm. Jennifer Cramblett, a 36-year-old woman from Uniontown, Ohio, filed suit Sept. The lawsuit has apparently been prompted by the "racial problems" the parents are experiencing now that their child, 2-year-old Payton, is inching closer toward learning about the cruel, racist realities of American society. But there's another large issue sitting at the crux of what's otherwise a lawsuit about medical malpractice.ĭealing with blackness has become burdensome and inconvenient for these two white mothers - because the biracial baby completely upended their decades of enjoying the spoils of white privilege. In the case of a lesbian couple from Ohio, it means a "wrongful birth" lawsuit against the sperm bank - two years after the fact. “My mother doesn’t like the way I look so she bleaches my hair to make me blonde like her.What happens, exactly, when a white family that wants a white sperm donor gets a half-black child instead? One day I innocently asked what was up with that and I’ll never forget how her response chilled me to the core. When I was in primary school – perhaps kindy or year 1 - I had a classmate who rocked the darkest roots in her white blonde hair I’d ever seen. If it sounds bad, we have to remember that it could be worse. “She’s a pretty little girl now obviously, but it really wasn’t until after her first birthday that she blossomed and I stopped worrying.” Interestingly, I noted it was only the mothers of daughters who piped up during this conversation the parents of boys kept staring straight down into their wine glasses. “I always thought my baby would come out looking like the babies you see in TV commercials, so when mine came out all swollen and not particularly pretty, I was filled with horror which was soon eclipsed by guilt because I felt that way about my own baby,” said another.Ī third trumped us all when she told the group she didn’t allow any of her friends or family to take photos of her baby because she worried they’d use the photos to make fun of bub the minute they walked away. “I always thought my baby would come out looking like the babies you see in TV commercials' (Getty) “Oh God, I asked my obstetrician whether nose jobs were a thing for babies and how long we would have to wait until we could shave down Sadie’s* nostrils,” admitted one who said she felt ‘disappointed’ with how her daughter looked when she first came out. But it was when I was speaking with some other mums recently about the topic that I realised how common the fear is and how deeply buried we keep it. Today my daughter is sweet, kind, smart, caring, funny and yes, as cute as a button – so much so that I’ve almost forgotten how she looked (and how I felt) when she was born. Would she outgrow it? Was I a terrible person for even placing importance on such a silly thing? It was a horrible thing to admit - even to myself – so aside from voicing my concerns to my husband, I kept my mouth zipped until the black down fell off her body, the swelling on her face went down and she emerged a gorgeous little person with a delightful nature to match. This time around, I counted toes and anxiously checked APGAR scores and was thrilled everything was well and working as it should be, but I couldn’t disconnect from a growing sense of disquiet that my baby was far from what you’d call ‘easy on the eye’. Obviously now she’s a lot older, I’m far more invested in her intelligence, compassion and sense of humour, but a three month old doesn’t give you much to work with besides cuteness so I went with what I could. “Oh, she’s so beautiful!” they’d say as my heart burst with pride.
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