You Don't Need To Do This Alone.I'm Here.

Lynda Collins and Natasha Bakht are friends,colleagues and co-parents. Together, they’re redefining what it means to be a family in Canada.

- Megan Jones

ON A SUNNY AFTERNOON THIS PAST MAY, Lynda Collins and Natasha Bakht are out for a stroll with their son, Elaan. The seven-year-old, who has severe disabilities, uses a walker, and he smiles as its wheels click along the sidewalk of the family’s downtown Ottawa block. A couple of neighbours wave. As the trio passes by a daycare, a woman who is supervising outdoor playtime calls out a hello.

When Elaan slows, the women take turns perking him up. Bakht, 45, guides him gently, while Collins, 42, stands in front and makes sounds (“Whoosh!”) or calls him by one of his many nicknames (Munchkin, Moopsie) to encourage him to come towards her. It’s a windy day, one of Elaan’s favourite times to be outside. Whenever the breeze becomes blustery, he breaks into a smile and rolls forward with it.

A stranger walking by might assume Collins and Bakht are a couple. But the two women have never been romantic partners. Instead, the “co-mamas,” as they call themselves, have redefined what an institutionally recognized family can look like in Canada. After an Ontario court granted them a legal declaration of parentage in November 2016, they became the first two people in the country to officially co-parent a child platonically. The declaration cemented what anyone close to them had long known: they, along with Elaan, are inseparable.

BAKHT AND COLLINS didn’t plan to become a family. In fact, they weren’t particularly close before 2009, when Bakht got pregnant through assisted reproductive technology using an anonymous sperm donor. At the time, the women—both law professors at the University of Ottawa—had been friends and colleagues going on three years.

Collins, who has a soft spot for babies, asked if she could be Bakht’s birth coach, and they grew closer while prepping for Elaan’s arrival.