According to Elpais, a businesswoman, a female dentist and a female administrative manager have managed to turn the idea of a traditional Brazilian family on its head, after recently making their relationship official before a notary in Rio de Janeiro.

The union marked the second time that a trio has tied the knot under Brazil’s 2003 civil unions law, which has paved the way for legal recognition of same-sex partnerships.

The three women, who have lived together for the past three years, signed a document that recognizes them as a family.

“We are a family and our union is the product of our love for one another,” said the businesswoman in an interview. “I am going to get pregnant and we are preparing for this, including looking at it in financial terms. This legalization (of the union) is a way to prevent the baby, and us, from being left unprotected by the law.”

The report said that Brazil’s top courts have not ruled on the legality of these types of plural unions, so each case is based on decisions made by local authorities.

Fernanda de Freitas Leitão, the notary who presided over the wedding ceremony of the three women said: "The foundation of any family relationship is affection, and these three women have everything to form a family – they have love, a strong relationship and they plan on having children."

“I can’t guarantee that they will have immediate rights; they are going to have to fight it out in court if they want to file joint income taxes or take out medical insurance. But at least they are protected,” she added.

Family lawyer Regina Beatriz Tavares believes that it will be impossible for the courts to recognize a child can have three mothers. “The Brazilian Constitution firmly states that a partnership can only be established by two people, and the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex unions also refers specifically to two people,” the lawyer said.

According to the last figures compiled in 2013 by the Brazilian Geographic and Statistics Institute (IBEG), new types of families (single mothers, fathers raising their children alone, childless couples and same-sex partnerships) account for 56.1 percent of Brazilian households.