Family Planning: Diabetes Edition
When are you having a baby? Asking this question, while never actually being an appropriate question to ask anyone, can bring up a lot of different emotions, especially for someone with a chronic health condition that is greatly impacted by pregnancy, like diabetes.
Perinatal Loss: Happy (?) Mother’sDay
The second Sunday of May, presumably a joyful holiday when the matriarchs, or maternal figures, in family units are honored and showered with presents. Strangers often shout “Happy Mother’s Day” to any woman of childbearing age from the end of April all the way up until the anticipated holiday. But is Mother’s Day always happy? What of those who are mothers, but do not quite fit into society’s definition of one?
Black Infertility: Am I the Only One?
You had your suspicions even before you mustered up the courage to walk through the fertility clinic doors. You failed to see Black faces and Black bodies on any of the fertility clinic websites. Black sperm donors, egg donors, and embryo donors are barely available. You have rarely, if ever, heard the topic of fertility discussed within your family or your community. Societal stereotypes tell us that Black bodies are hypersexual, and ergo hyper-fertile; so, then you cannot help but wonder, what is wrong with my body?
Single Parenthood by Choice: The Why
Why would anybody choose to raise a child alone? That is the question that society has for those that have chosen to have a family on their own. Why? In a society where we have made partnership and parenthood synonymous, asking ‘Why?’ is the natural response.
Infertility: Are You Pregnant Yet?
The dreaded question asked to every person who has announced that they are trying to conceive. The question that triggers anxiety, embarrassment, shame, exhaustion, anger, sadness, and heartbreak. It’s asked in a variety of ways... “Any updates you want to tell me?” … “When is this happening?” … “Any success yet?” … “What’s taking so long?” and this list goes on and on.
Infertility: Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day, the holiday dreaded by several facing infertility. It’s the holiday that reminds the infertile of the thing they have yet to achieve but yearn for the most – motherhood.
Infertility: The Heartbreak of One
The dreaded question asked to every person who has announced that they are trying to conceive. The question that triggers anxiety, embarrassment, shame, exhaustion, anger, sadness, and heartbreak. It’s asked in a variety of ways... “Any updates you want to tell me?” … “When is this happening?” … “Any success yet?” … “What’s taking so long?” and this list goes on and on.
Infertility: Silent Blame
These are the kinds of responses women receive when they struggle with infertility. When they open their hearts to their inner circle and question why their bodies will not cooperate with their efforts; they get told their thoughts are to blame. They get not so subtle condemnations that proclaim they have brought infertility onto themselves. They get blamed.