Memories in flesh and marble

SUMMARY This piece is about writing and having children and the places they occupy in my life. It describes a sense of isolation, of being cut off from others like me and my efforts to recreate connections, in fiction and in flesh. I explain how I came to be the mother of twins and recount some of the battles fought with doctors, midwives and strangers, as well as between my lover and myself. Lesbian motherhood may no longer be an oxymoron, but it is an awkward, uneasy category open to endless, hostile questioning from outsiders. Better to write our own stories, around lived contradictions, than accept our inscription under erasure on doctors' forms and birth certificates.