Bob is a 27-year-old single father living in northern England raising his 11-month girl. But daddy has a secret: He was born a woman.

Britain has been abuzz with the news of its reported first male mother, a phenomenon where a female-to-male transsexual keeps his female reproductive system in order to have a child.

Bob, not his real name, interviewed for the first time Sunday with the Daily Mail.

It's not something I want to become famous for. I don't want everyone to know that I'm transgender, Bob told a Daily Mail reporter from his undisclosed home.

Bob was in a gay relationship with a man, but the couple split so 11-month-old girl will be raised by a single father.

Bob told the newspaper that he didn't want his identity to be revealed since many of his friends don't know he was born a woman. He also said he was reluctant to be identified as a transsexual parent since he now identifies as male.

The British resident is far from the first known legal male mother, a phenomenon made known worldwide by Thomas Beatie, an American born a woman who transformed to a male in 2002.

The outspoken man made headlines worldwide in 2007 when he pictures of his beard and pregnant belly circulated the Internet.

Since then, he has had two additional children with his wife Nancy who cannot conceive.

Being pregnant wasn't an easy decision, because I had worked so hard to transition to male, Beatie said during an October interview on The Doctors, a television show distributed through CBS.

http://www.thedoctorstv.com/main/show_synopsis/877?section=synopsis

I realized that going off my testosterone and going through the process of pregnancy might erase some of the progress I made with my body. But I knew that I had to go through what I needed to go through to, ultimately, have our first child, he said.

The family now has Susan, 3, Austin, 2 and Jensen, 1 year old.

The difficulties in being a male mother aren't just biological - the Beatie family told the TV show hosts that the Federal Bureau of Investigations monitors the family because of previous death threats.

Beatie is the first married man to give birth, according to the Guinness World Records.

Bob is seeking a much lower profile, according to reports. For the past weeks, the British media has sought out interviews with whom many claim is Britain's first male mother.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the man, whose identity has not been disclosed, is from the West Midlands and is in a long-term relationship. It is not clear whether his partner is male or female, wrote Telegraph staff writer Richard Alleyne on Feb. 13.

Even as the press sought to talk with Bob, many U.K. residents saw the birth as a bizarre family choice that would impact the children.

I don't think it is in the interests of the child to distort nature this way, Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, told The Telegraph. We are prepared to do anything possible to fulfil the rights of the adult. But I think it is at the expense and rights and welfare of the child.

The Daily Mail also added details from the pregnancy blog that Bob wrote.

'I'm not the first man to have a baby and I won't be the last, but we're not fully accepted and understood yet, there's still a long way to go. But if there's one thing I've learned on my journey from being a girl to being a man, it's patience.

United kingdom