Award winning independent production company Ponda Films are working with a leading UK broadcaster to produce a documentary series about co-parenting.

We are currently looking to speak to individuals who are currently looking into or going through the beginnings of the selection process, who are at the start of their journey to finding a co-parent.

Our aim is to make a frank and intelligent documentary that allows those going through the co-parenting process to speak openly about their experiences, treating them with honesty and sensitivity.

If you are currently looking to co-parent and would like to find out more about the documentary please get in touch with Fozia at fozia@ponda.tv. Our conversation would be an opportunity for us to explain more about the project, and learn more from you.  All correspondence is entirely confidential, with no obligation to take part.

We have extensive experience in making sensitive and intelligent programmes on a variety of topics – for more information please visit www.ponda.tv

Lesbian non-bio mum wins IVF daughter appeal

The girl was taken to Pakistan after a relationship ended - but now a court could work to bring the seven-year-old back to the UK.
A lesbian woman battling with her ex-partner for the return of her IVF-born daughter from Pakistan has been given hope by a Supreme Court ruling. The girl’s biological mother and sole legal parent took her out of the UK in 2014, three years after their relationship ended.
But the woman who won today’s decision also considers herself a de facto parent to the seven-year-old - who was conceived by IVF in 2008. Her efforts to force her former partner to bring the girl back to the UK had been blocked by the High Court and Court of Appeal.
They said they could not intervene because the girl was not habitually resident in Britain when the legal action started. However, Supreme Court justices have now overturned those rulings - deciding she had been resident and allowing the woman’s appeal.
The case now goes back to the High Court for a judge to reconsider whether to take steps to bring the girl back from Pakistan. Lawyers say the ruling has important implications.
Maria Wright, from Freemans Solicitors, said: "The consequence of the Supreme Court's decision is that the English court can properly consider what is in (the child's) best interests and, if appropriate, order contact or (the child's) return to England."
Article: 3rd February 2016 www.news.sky.com

A Celistan & Co. Films is currently seeking real people to share their stories regarding Parenting Partnerships for an upcoming television series.

We want to capture the essence of what it takes to go through the journey of co­parenting without the parents having ever been romantically involved. They could be good long time friends or complete strangers, who simply want to come together to create and raise a child.  

We understand how challenging this process may be. We want to help people become the parents they wish to be and be able to provide a modern family unit filled with the love and attention every child deserves.  

For more information and to apply, please send a description of your story along with a recent  

photo and contact information to casting@celistantwins.com​ . SUBJECT LINE should read:​   

PARENTING PARTNERSHIP ­ YOUR NAME.  

 

How women choose sperm donors online - study shows intelligent, shy donors are more sought after

A study into how women choose sperm donors via online websites has revealed men who are intellectual, shy, calm and methodical are selected to produce more children than those who are extroverted. It also highlighted that women choose donors who have a higher income, even though there is no requirement for ongoing parental support.
The study, Determinants of online sperm donor success: how women choose by Stephen Whyte and Professor Benno Torgler from QUT's Queensland Behavioural Economics Group, has been published by the international journal Applied Economic Letters.
"Worldwide demand for sperm donors is so great an informal online market has emerged in which offspring are being produced outside of the more formal fertility clinic setting," said Mr Whyte.
"You would expect in an online setting, men would have to sell or promote themselves to women, and extroverted men should be better at doing that. But what we find is actually the opposite.
"In what we believe is the first study to include males who are donating purely through unregulated websites and forums, we interviewed and collected data from 56 men.
"This online donor market works quite differently to fertility clinics in that it facilitates more interaction between the recipient and the donor. This allows us to explore individual donor personality characteristics and how likely they are to be chosen by women as their donor.
"Women were far less likely to choose the sperm of fretful or socially awkward men but at the same time those with lively, extroverted personalities were also less successful in being chosen."
The participants for the study were aged between 23 and 66 and were from Australia, Canada, the UK, Italy, Sweden and the USA. Data was collected across 2012 and 2013 via online surveys of regulated (paid), semi-regulated and online sperm donation forums and websites such as Pride Angel.
"Research has previously shown humans are good at judging personality traits as well as levels of intelligence with only minimal exposure to appearance and behaviours, and our findings certainly seem to support that," Mr Whyte said.
"We also found that 73 per cent of our participants who had children by donation kept in touch via mail, email, phone, video link or even in person with at least one of their donor children."

Pride Angel Journey - Christmas in Toddlerdom

Luna shakes broken crumbs out of the hollow Christmas tree chocolate on to her plate. “I’m shaking the seeds out.” This is a two-and-a-half-year-old who has eaten a lot more fruit than chocolate. I briefly ponder the idea of planting a chocolate seed and waiting for the tree to grow and fruit. Just briefly though: there’s not much time for pondering with two toddlers loose near a Christmas tree.
Usually it’s just the baubles they go for, or the lights, but I did have to peel half a dozen pine needles off Luna’s tongue on Christmas Day evening; apparently hunger returns relatively quickly after a three-course roast dinner, and hunger coupled with tiredness led not for the first time to eating plants rather than asking for food.
Willow meanwhile, at eighteen months old, spent Christmas Day using his new catchphrase every time a wrapped present appeared: “what’s in there?!” If the wrapping happened to be relatively quick and easy to remove, he would stay the course, but more often than not by the time his question could be answered, he was engaged in using a remote control as a phone, pilfering someone’s keys or hunting for long-lost raisins under furniture.
I have to admit that ‘Jingle Bells’ has really brought on their singing – both can make it right through the chorus if you allow for a sort of mumbly skipping over the awkward line ‘one-horse open sleigh’ and it’s easily taken over ‘Ba Ba Black Sheep’ as the favourite. I have a feeling that by April they’ll have it mastered and we’ll never want to hear any Christmas song ever again.
For both us and the children I think the whole festive period has been a muddle of chaos, bewilderment, excitement and exhaustion. And earlier today I bemoaned the fact that it would likely be years before we could reasonably be part of some sort of adult celebration of New Year.
But lying here in bed at 9pm on New Year’s Eve writing this with a sleeping two-year-old snuggled up against me – a two-year-old who when asked what she wanted for Christmas, replied “mushroom” and whose only wish when she stirred the Christmas pudding was to “eat it”, I know that such innocence is a precious thing and that one day, there’ll be nothing I want more than another Christmas in Toddlerdom.
Article: by Lindsey, West Yorkshire 2nd January 2016

Free message credits when you login Christmas and New Year

To celebrate Pride Angel’s 7th Christmas and as a thank you to all our members, we are giving free message credits to all those who login at Christmas and New Year.
How to get your FREE message credits?
Simply log back into Pride Angel or Register if you’re not a member during the Christmas period:


- Login on Christmas day and receive 5 free message credits
- Login on New Year on the 1st January 2016 to receive 5 free message credits
- Or login on Christmas day AND New Year to receive 10 credits!

Your free message credits will be added to your account within 48hrs of you logging in – don’t worry you don’t need to do anything!
It’s also a great idea to update your profile regularly and make sure that all your ‘About you’ details are up to date!
So take advantage and login or register now.
Leave a lasting impression... It’s important to make sure that you are utilising all the tools available to you on the Pride Angel website in order to promote yourself to others.
Here are some quick tips for improving your profile:
- Update your ‘About You’ details: this is your opportunity to talk about your likes, dislikes, your values and interesting facts about you and your life – make sure you fill it in!
- Complete your health questionnaire: this is an important part of a profile for people looking for potential donors, recipients and co-parents. Assure people who are viewing your profile that you have the all clear!
- Add a current photograph: Let people see your face! It’s a common fact that people react to profiles with photographs so to increase your chances of a click through, add a recent photo!

Login and update your profile now.
For all those starting on the path to parenthood, we send our best wishes, and wish you happiness along your journey.
Here’s to a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for the New Year ahead!
Pride Angel
Note: Free message credits will only be added to your account once and only if your account has been verified, regardless of the number of times you log in over this time period. If you do not receive your free message credits by the 4th January, please get in touch.
Article: 24th December 2015 by Pride Angel

NOW CASTING FOR TELEVISION SERIES FEATURING PARENTING PARTNERS

Have you exhausted all possibilities of finding a romantic mate to conceive a child with? Are you currently looking for or are in the middle of partnering with someone to have a baby and simply co­parent? We want to hear your story!
We are currently looking to cast for an upcoming television series that will feature 3 stories including: one single woman, one single man, and an individual who has someone in mind that they’d already like to co­parent with. The series will follow each story as they proceed in a process known as a Parenting Partnership.
Cameras will document the highs and lows of what it actually takes to go through this process; including how each participant exhausted all possibilities of trying to either find someone to have a baby with or conceive a baby, so they decide to find a person with whom they want to simply co­parent with.
We understand how challenging this process may be. We want to help people become the parents they wish to be and be able to provide a modern family unit filled with the love and attention every child deserves.
Location: Nationwide Age Range: 20’s­40’s Payment: TBD Contact: To apply, please send a description of your story along with a recent photo and contact information to casting@celistantwins.com. SUBJECT LINE should read: PARENTING PARTNERSHIP ­ YOUR NAME.