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Infertility Awareness Week
It is National Infertility Awareness Week. As someone with direct experience with infertility and miscarriage, supporting those struggling with involuntary childlessness is an issue that is near and dear to my heart. (You can read more of my personal journey here and here.) Below is a list of facts, stats, and resources to help educate and encourage those walking this difficult road, as well as those eager to support them well. Definition:Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive a child or carry a pregnancy to full term. Most in the medical world diagnose someone as infertile after the patient has been actively trying to conceive for 12 months…
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The Many Emotions of Miscarriage
October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. This post was written two years ago in honor of those precious little ones we grieve, including two of my own. “So, do you have any kids?” It’s an innocent question, a social norm about as common as the handshake. Yet for over two years, this question was one I dreaded anytime I would meet a new acquaintance or strike up a conversation with a stranger. How in the world should I answer? Well, I have two in heaven I never got to meet… and a longing so deep that just you asking about children almost knocks the breath out of…
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How to Stay Married While Navigating Infertility
“Fifty percent of our infertility patients end up getting a divorce,” the nurse explained, when I questioned what I thought was a peculiar portion of the hospital’s legal paperwork. At that moment I was surprised to hear the statistic. But with raised eyebrows and a let’s–just–get–on–with–it mentality, I circled the appropriate decision for which one of us would be given custody of our frozen specimens “should divorce occur” and I went on with my day. A few months later, however, as my husband and I struggled to overcome our intense grief over a double infertility loss, I remembered her words. I then understood perfectly well. Infertility, miscarriage, and loss can…
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Licensed to Kill!
"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were gone." (Matthew 2:18 NET)
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The Many Emotions of Miscarriage
October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. This post is written in honor of those precious little ones we grieve, including two of my own. “So, do you have any kids?” It’s an innocent question, a social norm about as common as the handshake. Yet for over two years, this question was one I dreaded anytime I would meet a new acquaintance or strike up a conversation with a stranger. How in the world should I answer? Well, I have two in heaven I never got to meet… and a longing so deep that just you asking about children almost knocks the breath out of me. “No…no, I…
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Hope Deferred—Observations from Hannah’s Story
She pushed herself up from the table and left the room. She did not have much appetite. The day had been long, and she could take the painful and provoking comments from Peninnah no longer. As she walked towards the temple, tears poured from her eyes and slid down her cheeks and nose, making a wet trail in the dust. Her lips moved as she prayed, but she did not utter a sound as she pleaded and begged the LORD for a child. To make matters worse, the priest believed her to be not grieved, but rather, drunk. (1 Sam. 1:7–14) Hannah suffered much because of her childless state. Many…
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Memoir-Life with a New Baby…When You Are Near Death in a Coma
"After waking from a two-month coma after childbirth I struggled to discover what had happened, love my child, and rediscover who I was. I awoke to a baby I didn’t know and a body I didn’t recognize. I faced a life and self I didn’t know how to put back together. " So begins Lindsey O'Connor's new book, The Long Awakening, a personal memoir of near-death in the midst of giving life. Ove ten years previous, at an author’s conference in Atlanta, Ga, right in the middle of ONE BIG PAJAMA PARTY, Lindsey had begun to cramp badly. In a book on the friendships of women I wrote about what…