Two pregnant men in Britain recently gave birth to baby girls, the Telegraph reports.
Scott Parker and Hayden Cross, both transgender men, are believed to be the first two men to give birth in the country, after each putting their transitions on hold to carry out their pregnancies.
Cross had his daughter, Trinity-Leigh, last month and was thought to be the first man to ever have a baby in Britain. Trinity-Leigh was conceived through artificial insemination, after Cross found a sperm donor through Facebook, he told The Sun.
"All I have ever wanted is to be a dad," Cross told The Sun."Being a dad all came naturally to me. As soon as I held her my paternal instincts just kicked in."
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Cross asked the National Health Service in the UK to freeze his eggs before he completed his transition, but the service refused for reasons that Cross didn't explain. Transgender men sometimes opt to have their eggs frozen and can later use them with a surrogate or a female partner.
Since Cross was unable to freeze his eggs, he decided to forgo taking testosterone, and have a baby himself. Now that his daughter has been born, he told The Sun, he plans to start taking hormones again and does not intend to breastfeed.
Although many people believed Cross was the first man to ever give birth in Britain, Parker came forward soon after to say that he was actually the first. He gave birth to his daughter, Sara, about seven weeks before Trinity-Leigh was born.
Unlike Cross, Parker didn't plan for his pregnancy. Sara was conceived after a drunken one-night stand with a friend, according to the Telegraph. But Parker did decide to delay his transition in order to have Sara, as Cross did.
"This is pretty much the only opportunity I’ll have to have a child free of medical intervention," he told the Daily Mail. "It was the perfect chance."
Since having Sara, Parker has gone ahead with completing his transition. He's planning to have a double mastectomy to remove his breasts next year.
Parker and Cross are both listed as the mother on their babies' birth certificates, though Parker told the Daily Mail that he fought to be listed as the father instead. Although he was not allowed to be listed as the father, Parker hopes that stories like his and Cross's will help the world change for their children.
"I want society to understand this a bit better so that when she grows up it’s more normal to say, 'Yes, my dad had me,'" he said.
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