Maja Sever

I'm an artist from Slovenia, 37, having painted for about 20 years.I have a 3 year-old son, which was concieved normally, or let's say naturally with my partner. I had a strong desire for baby for about 2 years before it happened.

Iam now divorced, and having lived 2 years in Switzerland, I now decided to move back to Ljubljana with my son.

I understand the wish of a woman, wanting to have a child and being with no partner. It is a strong desire, almost impossible to put it aside, to transform it, or to numb it. It is biological. Women who have this desire and don't have a chance to get pregnant, are suffering from it and would do anything to experience the biological (and emotional) changes of their belly, of their whole body system.

But I don't know if the artificial insemination is the solution to this.On one hand, yes, because the woman gets the experience. What she does with it, it's her life choice - or destiny. I don't know about its consequences for the biological, social, economical system in our world. It must have some.

Iam too romantic to have been able to do that. Or sentimental. Or naive. Or fatalistic. I feel if life doesn't bring you the partner, then it's not supposed to happen.

Although, if the artificial insemination would be less complicated and more easily available, more accepted and supported, maybe I would have gone for that as well. Luckily, it happened naturally already.

Maja

Polonca Lovšin

I am an architect and artist from Slovenia. I am working as a free-lance artist since 2001.

In 2007 I gave birth to a boy, Tobi. With my partner, who is an artist himself, we made the decided for a child quite late, since our position, as artists, is financially unsure and unpredictable. I am a person who worries about not having money.

I enjoy being a mother. I believe the mother is much more occupied with the child during the first year of his life than the father. But even if I spent much more time and energy with Tobi I cannot imagine being a single mother. Father helps a lot many times just with his presence.

I couldn't work much on my projects during this first year. My only free time was after 8 p.m. when we put Tobi in bed. But it demands a great discipline and dedication to stay focused and work every day 3 hours in the evening. I didn't manage to produce anything new. More or less, I was just coordinating old projects and projects started already in the year before I gave birth.

In Slovenia, a free-lance artist mother gets a financial support by the Ministry of Culture during the first year after birth of the child. For me the first half of the year after the birth were great - I wasn't thinking about money and jobs at all.

Immediately after the first 6 months I started to worry about how to earn money. I started to work on projects to earn money after Tobi was 6 months old. This meant even further reducing of the time spent on my projects (which was already reduced to a minimum).

I can understand that artists do not decide to have children. It is a very stressful and unsure life. It depends a lot on an individual situation - if your parents can help, you have a good financial background - as well as on your personal character. I think my situation isn't the worst possible. I know some of my artist friends are even in worse situations.

In June I will get my last financial support of 500 EUR. After that I will need to work much more for money. But since Tobi got a place in a kindergarten only from 1 September, I will have to take care of him for another three months, without really earning money. I don't live in the same city as my parents, so I have no one to take care of Tobi in the meantime.