This essay tracks the vicissitudes of woman's analysis during her three year attempt to become pregnant, and in her own words, “to become a real mother”. As a lesbian daughter of heterosexual parents, she attempted to “cure” her infertility, and redress her self- perceived sexual sins through compliance with a fantasy of heterosexual completion. This fantasy came to be seen as a diversion from the more difficult task of re-engaging with a symbolic oedipal dilemma and bearing parricide guilt.