They're one of the fastest growing demographics, when it comes to motherhood, women in their 30s and 40s are having babies without partners in their lives.
Darla, Alison, and Michelle are three single moms, by choice.
Darla Rainford says, "You get to a point in your life where you don't want to wait anymore."
"Gee, if I turn 40, still not married, I should look into becoming a mom on my own." says choice mom Alison Morris.
"I didn't make that choice of picking the wrong person, just to get the child." says Michelle Brechon.
They're part of a growing trend of single women taking control over when and how they start families.
"To me being a mom wasn't necessarily about being married." says Rainford.
Rainford used a sperm donor who was a friend of hers to have her son Caeden. Morris adopted her son Julian from Guatemala. Brechon was artificially inseminated by an unknown donor to conceive her daughter Tara.
"Whether you're single or you're married, you still have the same biological urge to have a child." says Rainford.
Single parenthood, whether you choose it or not, is challenging. Studies show kids raised in single parent homes are more likely to be depressed, turn to violence and abuse alcohol. There's also concern that these kids don't have strong male role models.
"I usually say, 'I don't have a dad.' I say, 'I have a donor,' and then they always ask, 'What's a donor?' and I say, 'It's a person who helps your mom have a baby.'" says Caeden Rainford, who's mother choose to get a sperm donor to have him.
"When I'm building stuff I just think it might be fun to have a dad to help" says Caeden.
But these women say they found the formula for a happy family, without fathers.
"It's okay that we don't have dads because we still have a mom who loves us, and we still have someone to take care of us." says Caeden.
About 1.7 million babies are born to single women every year, a 26% rise over five years.
The percentage of babies born to unmarried women in the U.S. is starting to look more like many European countries.
The proportion of babies born to unmarried women is about 66% in Iceland, 55% in Sweden, 50% in France, and 44% in the U.K.
