A new approach to helping donor-conceived families share origin stories?
Beyond the disclosure debate in donor-conception: how do we help families to discuss origin stories with their children? (Navarro-Marshall, 2025)
Navarro-Marshall, J. (2025). Beyond the disclosure debate in donor-conception: How do we help families to discuss origin stories with their children? Human Reproduction, 00(0), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deaf004
Geographic Region: Global
Research Question: How can families effectively communicate about donor conception origins with their children?
Design: Reviews and synthesizes existing research on donor conception disclosures, family communication processes, elaborative reminiscing, birth stories and identity development.
Key Findings
The author suggests a framework that shifts the focus in donor conception disclosure from the traditional questions of "what" and "when" to tell children about their origins to include the crucial aspect of "how" these stories are shared.
The framework is built on research about “elaborative reminiscing”, a specific way of sharing stories that has been shown to support children's development of autobiographical memory and identity formation. The author argues that this approach is particularly relevant for donor-conceived families because it provides a structured way to engage in ongoing conversations about origins, rather than treating disclosure as a one-time event.
Drawing on evidence from birth story research and studies of family communication, the author demonstrates how elaborative reminiscing can help families navigate potentially difficult conversations while supporting children's developmental needs. This research shows that when parents engage in detailed, responsive storytelling about past events, including challenging ones, it can actually provide opportunities for children's socioemotional growth.
The author suggests that this approach could help address both the immediate practical needs of families and the longer-term developmental needs of donor-conceived children, providing a more comprehensive, lifelong framework for family communication about donor conception.
“The preferred seed-planting strategy, which is telling the child at 3–4 years of age a story about reproduction using the metaphor of a seed that is given and a doctor who helps, tends to be applied in the same way by different parents probably because it is the content of most books written to support parents. The result can be a storytelling process that becomes too generic, concrete, or oversimplified, which does not reflect the particularities of each family and that tends to close the subject instead of opening new questions and conversations.”
Limitations: Limited research specifically on elaborative reminiscing in donor-conceived families. Lack of systematic evidence-based guidelines for family communication processes. Most research focuses on maternal rather than paternal reminiscing.
Applications: The practical value of this framework lies in its potential to guide professionals and parents in developing effective communication strategies. Research on the use of elaborative reminiscing in donor-conceived families is needed to provide guidelines for families to co-construct their narratives in a dialogical process that includes different perspectives and is revisited throughout their lifetime.
Funding Source: ANID Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Chile
Lead Author: Javiera Navarro-Marshall is a researcher at the Department of Psychology, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile, specializing in family communication and donor conception.