Having a baby can be one of the most wonderful times of your life—but if you need help to conceive, it can swiftly become a staggeringly expensive undertaking. With the average cost of infertility treatments ranging from $35,000 to $85,000 in the United States (most of which is not covered by insurance companies), many women and couples find themselves having to make difficult choices about building their families. Getting a grip on your finances is one of the few things you can do to regain control of this process. Infertility experts Evelina Weidman Sterling and Angie Best-Boss have created the ultimate guide to ensuring the most cost-effective care with the highest chances for success. With anecdotes, interviews, and advice from both doctors and patients, you can easily apply these specific money-saving strategies to your own unique situation.

Are you considering building your family through egg donation? If so, there are many issues to think about: how do you select an egg donor, what are the emotional ramifications of this procedure, will you be able to bond with your child, and what is an appropriate level of privacy and secrecy. This book addresses all these issues and more. In addition, it includes a section on how to explain egg donation to your child.

From the Back Cover of the 1994 Edition: Challenging Conceptions is a powerful and inspiring book about the experience of lesbian couples and single women creating their own families independently of a social father.

In an authoritative and accessible manner, Saffron sets out the medical, social, political and legal realities of independent motherhood, including a step by step —guide to self-insemination. She provides the reader with essential advice and information on seeking and screening donors, getting pregnant, and on what to do when self-insemination isn’t working.

Through a series of interviews, the author charts the personal experiences of a wide range of mothers, co-parents, children and donors and we learn from their unique perspectives the happiness and fulfilment which their ‘alternative’ families have brought to their lives.

Challenging Conceptions is an invaluable resource for lesbian couples and single women wanting to become mothers. It is a positive affirmation of every woman’s right to choose a family and future of her own.

---

About the Author: Lisa Saffron was involved with the creation in the 1980s of the Women’s Health Information Centre where she worked for many years. She has written extensively on donor insemination and women’s health, and is the author of Getting Pregnant Our Own Way. She lives in London with her partner and daughter.

I stared at the letter and picture as the tears fell. I hadn’t heard from Vickie in almost twenty years. And then tonight, of all nights, I had received such a letter! I held my breath as I sensed God’s presence all around me. Adoption, was that what God had in mind for us? Ten years of infertility brought Debbi and Phil Migit to a crisis of faith. Child of Promise is the true account of one couple’s journey from barrenness to the blessing of transracial adoption. There is a message that goes beyond infertility and adoption; it will touch any believer and bring them to a better understanding of God’s ultimate faithfulness. Walk with Debbi and Phil as they remain faithful to God and finally receive their “child of promise.”

There are many books on infertility, and on being childfree. Childfree After Infertility: Moving from Childlessness to a Joyous Life puts the two together, focusing solely on the formerly infertile, and how they have created happy, childfree lives. Including the stories of many who have made this transition, the book shows the infertile man or woman that it is possible to put infertility aside, and choose to live childfree, not childless. The book’s upbeat tone leads the reader through what can be a difficult transition with grace and humour. Infertility can be devastating, affecting all facets of life. Readers of Childfree After Infertility will learn how their infertility has affected their lives, and how choosing to release their infertility and become childfree can open up a vast array of possibilities and opportunities that might never have existed had they remained childless.

From the Dust Jacket: IVF, GIFT, ICSI, donor sperm, donor ova, adopting embryos, surrogacy, gestational carriers...

New reproductive technologies and reproductive assistance from third parties offer infertile people an array of treatment options and alternative paths to parenthood. Although these options bring hope, promise and possibility to vast numbers of people, they also bring with them a host of emotional, physical, ethical, and financial challenges. Choosing Assisted Reproduction is about these challenges—and about the ways that people understand and reconcile them.

Susan Cooper and Ellen Glazer are recognized experts in the field of infertility counseling. In Choosing Assisted Reproduction they draw upon their earlier work, Beyond Infertility, to offer infertile readers—and professionals who assist them—a clear and comprehensive picture of what couples experience when they explore and pursue assisted reproduction. However, Choosing Assisted Reproduction goes farther than Beyond Infertility, providing an updated and in-depth look at the ethical questions that arise in assisted reproduction and especially in such third party parenting arrangements as ovum and sperm donation, surrogacy and embryo adoption.

Drawing upon lessons learned from generations of families expanded by adoption and donor insemination, Cooper and Glazer offer parents and prospective parents guidance about when, how and why to talk with children about their origins. This is new territory, and Choosing Assisted Reproduction’s readers are truly pioneers. Undoubtedly, Cooper and Glazer’s explanations and recommendations will help these parents make decisions with knowledge and confidence.

Choosing Assisted Reproduction is a book that readers will read from cover to cover and then refer back to time and again as they make their way through—and beyond—assisted reproduction.

---

About the Author: Susan Lewis Cooper is a psychologist with over twenty years of private practice experience specializing in infertility, adoption, and third party reproductive options. In addition, she is a psychologist at the Reproductive Science Center-Boston and at Focus Counseling and Consultation, Inc., in Cambridge, where she is also a co-director.

Ellen Sarasohn Glazer is a clinical social worker with over twenty years’ experience. For the past ten years her private practice has focused on infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, and related issues. She is also program counselor at the Fertility Center of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts. She is the author of The Long-Awaited Stork: A Guide to Parenting after Infertility.

Together, Cooper and Glazer co-authored two previous books. Without Child: Experiencing and Resolving Infertility and Beyond Infertility: The New Paths to Parenthood are now out of print. Both women are members of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and its Mental Health Professional Group and each served for several years on RESOLVE, Inc.’s national board of directors.

From the Dust Jacket: Sperm donors on the Internet. An epidemic of multiple births. Women paying college tuition by selling their eggs. In this brave new world of reproductive and genetic technologies—with few rules to govern them—how do we find our way?

Lori Andrews passed her bar exam the day the first test-tube baby was born. Since then she has become the world’s most visible expert on the legal and ethical implications of reproductive technology. She is sought after to assess the entanglements of surrogate motherhood, the ethics of creating babies from dead men’s sperm, and the propriety of human cloning.

In this provocative memoir, Andrews tells how she has explored the ethical and legal ramifications of a vast array of developments in this exploding and unregulated field. Along the way, she addresses profound and disturbing questions: Is a human embryo property, a person, or something else entirely? Should parents be able to buy genes for superior intelligence or athletic ability for their children? Should doctors and scientists be allowed to profit from patenting their patients’ genes?

Infertility is now a $2 billion-a-year industry. Couples spend up to $200,000 to achieve a single pregnancy, and their doctors are now the highest paid in the medical profession. As Andrews explains, cutthroat competition has forced doctors to resort to extreme measures to ensure positive results for their patients, including using unnecessary fertility drugs and dangerous experimentation. There are hundreds of clinics in the United States and around the world with the capacity to clone human beings, and few legal restraints to stop them. Not only can people clone themselves with legal impunity, but if a stranger wanted to make a clone of you—say, from hair follicles collected at the barbershop—you couldn’t stop him. Under current law, people have little control over their body tissue and genes once these materials leave their body.

Over the last twenty years, Andrews has faced all these issues. In The Clone Age, she unmasks the bizarre motives and methods of a new breed of doctors and scientists and addresses the wrenching issues we face as venture capital floods medical research, technology races ahead of legal and ethical ground rules, and ordinary people struggle to maintain both human dignity and their own emotional balance.

---

About the Author: Lori Andrews is a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and the director of the Institute for Science, Law, and Technology. She is the author of six books and more than eighty articles on genetics, alternative modes of reproduction, and biotechnology. She has been an adviser on genetic and reproductive technology to the president and Congress, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, and numerous foreign governments. She lives in Chicago.

A Common Thread is a collection of sixteen brave and honest experiences of fertility issues and miscarriage. Each journey is unique, yet each chapter truthfully expresses the heartfelt highs and lows experienced, how faith has been affected, and how God has brought the sojourner through. Although the physical, emotional and mental toll can be unbearable for those who find themselves facing these battles, there is hope.

Within these pages you will read the stories of those who have experienced successful IVF, failed IVF, multiple miscarriages, miscarriage after having children, adoption, miracle births, and those who have never been able to have children.

Although we all experience the journey differently, we all share “a common thread” of understanding. You are not alone.

---

About the Author: Catherine Sylvester was born in New Zealand and spent her first seventeen years there before living overseas in various countries and studying acting in Australia. Putting to use the skills she learned, she hosted various TV shows and a radio show.

Married to Julian since 2005, they absolutely love and delight in their girls, Estella and Skyler. As a family they are always keen for an adventure.

Since experiencing fertility issues and recurrent miscarriage, she has had the privilege of ministering to others who find themselves in a similar situation through Thursday’s Babies which she founded in 2007.

It is Catherine’s passion to share with others the restorative and redeeming love of a Father who forgives all, loves all and can do all things.

From the Back Cover: Whether you are thinking about adopting a child or using reproductive treatments to become pregnant, The Complete Adoption and Fertility Legal Guide explains your options, gives you the steps to take to protect your decision and hands you the power to make it happen.

Every year ASSISTED REPRODUCTION becomes more common as new reproductive technologies are added to the list of possible choices. Proven procedures and emerging technologies are discussed with answers to questions like:

• What should you do to prevent a sperm or egg donor from later claiming custody of your child?

• Why does a surrogate’s husband need to be a party to the contract?

• How can a surrogacy contract help you spot potential problems?

• What steps should you take for the disposition of frozen genetic material?

The procedures for all types of ADOPTIONS are covered, as well as the agreements, required notices and documentation needed to support your decision. Learn more about:

• Protecting against a birth father from claiming paternity

• When birth parents can revoke their consent to the adoption

• Your rights as a gay or lesbian couple to adopt

• Why you have to readopt a child adopted internationally

---

About the Author: Brette McWhorter Sember received her J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and practiced in New York state before leaving her practice to become a writer. She is the author of fifteen books, including The Visitation Handbook: Your Complete Guide to Parenting Apart. She is a member of ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors) and AHCJ (Association of Health Care Journalists). She is the recipient of the 2000 Media Award from Family and Home Network (formerly Mothers At Home).

Sember has extensive training in cases involving children and was on the Law Guardian panel in three counties. Her practice included adoptions, which she found to be the happiest cases to take place in Family Court. She is also a trained family mediator and is experienced in a wide variety of family issues. Children have always been her main focus throughout her career.

Sember writes and speaks often about children and family. Her work has appeared in magazines such as ePregnancy, Pregnancy, Child, and American Baby. She is the mother of two children and has personal experience with fertility issues.

---

By the Same Author: The Infertility Answer Book: The Complete Guide to Your Family-Building Choices with Fertility and other Assisted Reproduction Technologies (2005); Gay and Lesbian Parenting Choices: From Adopting or Using a Surrogate to Choosing the Perfect Father (2006, Career Press); The Adoption Answer Book (2007); Unmarried with Children: The Complete Guide for Unmarried Families (2008, Adams Media); and The Everything Parent’s Guide to Raising Your Adopted Child: A Complete Handbook to Welcoming Your Adopted Child Into Your Heart and Home (with Corrie Lynn Player & Mary C Owen; 2008, Adams Media).

If you are one of the millions of women facing the challenges of infertility, you know that gathering and keeping track of all of the information involved can be difficult. This book, the first of its kind, helps you establish a solid organizational framework for working through the entire infertility evaluation and treatment process. It provides you with a comprehensive record-keeping resource while you are seeking safe and effective pregnancy. With its easy-to-customize “personal conception plan,” The Complete Fertility Organizer lets you organize and maintain control of all of the information involved. You will be able to easily track essential vital data such as fertility charts, procedures, medication records, test results, insurance, and physician information. If you become pregnant, you will be able to record information related to the prevention of miscarriage and premature labor, and use the tracking tools to help promote a healthy pregnancy. Whether you are just suspecting that you may have an obstacle to becoming pregnant or you’re already undergoing extensive infertility treatments, The Complete Fertility Organizer delivers indispensable support and guidance.

Infertility has a major impact on the lives of a significant number of people. Within the United Kingdom it is estimated that 1 in 6 couples are unable to have children. Globally that figure is put at 1 in 10 with up to 25% of couples unable to have a second child. For many couples a diagnosis of infertility can lead to despair. The arduous nature of the diagnostic and treatment procedures, the social stigma and psychological scarring that may follow the discovery of infertility means that the utmost care and assistance is needed in helping people with this problem. The Complete Guide to Infertility is written for the many couples who, following a diagnosis of infertility, desperately want a clear, well informed and comprehensive account of the problems of infertility and the help and services available. It is also aimed at the many professionals who, though involved with infertility and specialists in their own area, lack the overall picture. About the Author: Olga van den Akker is Senior Research Fellow with the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at the University of Birmingham. She is Associate Editor for the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology.

From the Dust Jacket: Liza was a healthy thirty-four-year-old when she discovered that she could not carry a baby. Like one out of every six couples who hear this news, Liza and her husband, David, were overwhelmed by determination—and despair that they would never be parents.

Then the unthinkable happened. Liza’s cousin, Jennifer, offered to carry Liza and David’s baby. With the drama of a novel and the soul of a memoir, Conceiving Luc follows the story of these two women and the legacy of sisterhood that they inherited from their formidable mothers. Only the most powerful friendship could sustain them through the delicate process that culminated in the transfer of Liza and David’s embryo to Jennifer, who nurtured it, bearing Luc, who weighed eight pounds and two ounces at birth. This is the story of how two women and their husbands came to the incredible decision to put their faith and friendship into the rigorous and emotional science of creating new life where little is known and hope is palpable.

Few couples have explored this brave new world where conception, medical technology, and human emotions meet—and no one has offered such an intensely personal account of probing for answers and holding a family together amid such uncertainty. In this story, Jennifer and Liza—one committed to give the most generous gift of life and the other confident enough to accept it—let us into their lives. The extraordinary experience they share—from the physical changes to the interpersonal tension, both between the women and their husbands—offers a moving meditation on motherhood and generosity. Together, Liza and Jennifer marvel not only at the wonders of science, but also at the life-giving power of love.

No other memoir has explored such a medical odyssey—the promise and the problems of the pursuit of parenthood. Filled with eloquence and candor, Conceiving Luc is a restorative true story that redefines the meaning of family.

---

About the Author: Liza Freilicher, a restaurateur, lives in New York City with her husband and son, Luc.

Jennifer Scheu, a media account executive, lives in Chicago with her husband and children, Dakota and Austin.

Suzanne Wetanson, a writer and a sculptor, lives in New York City.

This is my very personal story of heartbreaking infertility to adoption from foster care. The book follows along as I attempt fertility treatments and ultimately decide to adopt my son.

From the Dust Jacket: In Conquering Infertility, Harvard psychologist Dr. Alice Domar—whom Vogue calls the “Fertility Goddess”—provides infertile women with what they need most: stress relief, support, and hope. Her innovative mind/body tools help women to regain control of not only their infertility treatment but also their lives. And her program works. Within a year, more than 50 percent of the patients who used her mind/body techniques along with their infertility treatments conceived pregnancies that resulted in a baby, compared with 20 percent who did not use the mind/body tools.

Here are wise, strong, comforting words on:

• sustaining a career during infertility

• coping when friends and family members become pregnant

• navigating the medical maze

• addressing doubts when infertility threatens your belief in God

• exploring other options when treatment fails

With Conquering Infertility, women learn how to cope with infertility in a much more positive way and to carve a path—however unexpected—toward a rich, full, happy life.

---

About the Author: Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the world-renowned Mind/Body Program for Infertility and author of the national bestseller Self-Nurture. She is also assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Mind/Body Center for Women’s Health at Boston IVE Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband and two daughters.

Alice Lesch Kelly’s writing appears in numerous publications that include Health, Glamour, Shape, Woman’s Day, and The New York Times. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

---

Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 11: Other Paths to Parenthood.

From the Introduction: Because this is a monumental life decision, I offer this workbook as a guide to help you make your way along the path to considering parenthood. With each decision regarding your parenting choices, there is yet another to be made. This workbook can help you make informed, responsible, and honest decisions. There is no expectation that you will choose or not choose to be a parent. There is only the hope that the exercises and text will guide your thinking, present you with many possibilities, and assist you in making choices that feel tight for you, the life you have chosen for yourself, and the life you hope to live.

---

INCLUDING: Support networks; Families of origin; Work; Money; Non-biological mothers; Legal issues; Intimacy; Co-parenting; Single parenting; Problem solving; Alternative fertilization; Adoption; and more.

This book realistically and knowledgeably addresses the choices involved in deciding whether or not to become a parent, for the lesbian communities and wise women everywhere.

---

About the Author: Cheri Pies was born in Los Angeles in 1949. She received her Master’s degree in Social Work from Boston University in 1976 and her Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985. She has been a health activist for the past 15 years in the women’s health, reproductive rights and disability rights movements. Cheri has worked in many community organizations, including Planned Parenthood as a health educator and trainer. She is also one of the founders of a shelter for battered women and their children in Oakland.

Since 1977, Cheri has been leading groups for lesbians considering parenthood. In addition, she freelances as a facilitator and mediator, and has served as consultant to legal organizations, gay and lesbian groups, film projects and the mass media. For fun, Cheri enjoys jogging and swimming, spending time with her friends, playing with her three cats—Teddy, Bob and Tinkerbell, and performing as Violet the clown for adults and children. She is currently exploring the social and ethical implications of reproductive technologies and prenatal screening.

And yes, Cheri Pies is her real name.

From the Publisher: The Consumers Union Report on Family Planning. A guide to contraceptive methods and materials for use in child spacing, techniques for improving fertility, and recognized adoption procedures. This report has been prepared for the use of physicians, social workers, and married persons who are seeking family planning information on the advice of a physician.

---

About the Author: Alan F. Guttmacher is President of the Planned Parenthood Federation, former Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mount Sinai Hospital of New York, and former Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

Aquiles J. Sobrero, M.D., is Director of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau.

Rael Jean Isaac is a teacher, editor, and the author of Adopting a Child Today.

---

Complier’s Note: See, particularly, Part III: Adopting a Child (pp. 124-166), which consists of the following chapters: The prospects improve; Adopting through a licensed agency; Private or independent adoption; Adopting a child from overseas; Interracial adoption; Foster parenthood; and Raising the adopted child.

From the Introduction: This book is aimed at helpers who are consulted by women and families who are dealing with unplanned pregnancies and with infertility (although research on infertility is only now beginning to be published). ...

My goals in this book are threefold. First, I want to arm you with understanding and techniques to help those needing to deal with unplanned pregnancies. Second, I want to help you think about ways that the problems might be prevented or lessened with the people in your congregation or with your clientele. Finally, I want to place this great human problem within the context of saving and redeeming faith in Jesus Christ. ...

This book is targeted at helping in settings that are explicitly Christian. This does not necessarily mean that the clients will be Christian or that all of the counselors will agree on the theory of counseling, their interpretation of Scripture, or even the time of day. Christians, who have a strong concern for absolute truth, often have an overdeveloped sensitivity to perceived error. They frequently disagree. I hope that readers can go beyond the points on which we disagree and still be enriched by the book. I have assumed throughout the book that the reader is an experienced counselor, so I have not written a technique-oriented book. I have tried to provide information about the various types of unplanned pregnancies and point out some ways the counselor might use the information.

The first part of the book deals with how to conceptualize the problem of unplanned pregnancy and with descriptions of ways to help families with unplanned pregnancies. ...

The second part of the book deals with pregnancies that are too early. ...

The third part of the book deals with pregnancies that are too late or that never occur. ...

In Part IV of the book, I reflect on ways that writing the book has affected me. There I discuss some of my beliefs about why people suffer, and I affirm the sovereignty of God as the Lord of the universe.

I hope you will evaluate this book as Christian without being preachy and that you will find it practical and theologically true where it addresses theological issues. I hope it will be useful in helping draw both those you help and you closer to the living God.

---

About the Author: Everett Worthington is associate professor of psychology at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He has authored numerous scholarly research articles and has written three books, When Someone Asks for Help, How to Help the Hurting, and Marriage Counseling with Christian Couples. Having received the B.S. at the University of Tennessee and the M.S. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in nuclear engineering, he held a commission in the U.S. Navy and served as an instructor in the Naval Nuclear Power School. Dr. Worthington subsequently earned the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in counseling psychology at the University of Missouri. He and his wife Kirby live in Richmond, Virginia, and are the parents of four children, Christen, Jonathan, Becca, and Katy Anna.

---

Compiler’s Note: Includes Appendices listing recommended reading on the topics of “Information About Adoption” (6) and “Infertility and Adoption” (7) (pp. 251-253).

From the Introduction: This book explains in simple language and non-technical terms how a child is conceived; and when conception does not occur, how the causes of sterility are diagnosed and treated.

---

Compiler’s Note: See, Chapter 13: Adopting a Child, pp. 215-228 (The Plus and Minus Sides—Where Do the Babies Come From?—Questions and Answers About Adoption—Eligibility of Adopting Parents—How Are Babies Selected for Adoption?—How and Where to Apply for Adoption—The Legal Process—Some Reference Reading). Fittingly, the chapter on adoption is the last. In an earlier chapter concerning the effect of emotions, the author also includes personal anecdotes about couples she has treated where the wife became pregnant only after they have given up trying to conceive (“Can Adoption Pave the Way for Pregnancy?”, pp. 191-195).

From the Back Cover: Cracked Open is Miriam Zoll’s eye-opening account of growing into womanhood with the simultaneous opportunities offered by the U.S. women’s movement and new discoveries in reproductive technologies. Influenced by the pervasive media and cultural messages suggesting that science had eclipsed Mother Nature, Zoll postponed motherhood until the age of 40. When things don’t progress as she had hoped, she enters a world of medical seduction and bioethical quagmires. Desperate to conceive, she surrenders to unproven treatments and procedures only to learn that the odds of becoming a mother through reproductive technologies are far lower than she and her generation had been led to believe.

---

About the Author: Miriam Zoll is an award-winning writer and international public health and reproductive rights advocate and educator. She is the founding co-producer of the Ms. Foundation of Women’s original Take Our Daughters To Work Day and a member of the board of Our Bodies Ourselves.

From the Dust Jacket: So how was it, I wondered, that I had arrived at this point in my life: almost thirty-nine years old, no child? When I looked back, I could see why, and even when, I took a sharp turn away from motherhood. I could also see why motherhood would catch up with me.

So asks Paulette Bates Alden in Crossing the Moon, a memoir—at once witty and wistful—in which the author recounts her initial ambivalence about motherhood, the pain and frustration of following a course of treatment for infertility, and ultimately the birth of a new self: a writer, comfortable at last with her family of two.

Inevitably, the book also touches a wide array of other issues: aging parents; being raised Southern and female in the fifties; the trade-offs between a life of work and one devoted to nurture; coping with grief and loss. This is a fine companion for anyone struggling with infertility and a treasure for any woman coming to terms with who she is.

---

About the Author: Paulette Bates Alden is currently Writer-in-Residence at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.

So often we allow our worship to be dictated by our circumstances. The truth is, our worship should be dictated by who God is. Sometimes our lives take different turns than what we had planned. Our dreams get shattered, our plans get altered, and life looks nothing like what we had hoped it would. We find ourselves surrounded by the darkness of despair. It’s in these moments where we learn how to worship. In A Dance In the Dark, Stacy takes you on a journey to the heart of worship through her compelling story of her personal struggles with infertility. She learned that worship happened when she chose to honor God in the midst of her pain. Hidden beneath these lowest places, these darkest valleys, are His treasures awaiting to be found. Hidden beneath the rubble and ashes in our lives we find the greatest treasure of all—His heart. The question is, how do we uncover these treasures? How do we find Him in the midst of it all? How do we uncover His heart in the worst of times? We uncover them through our worship. We uncover them when we dance.

From the Back Cover: When experiencing infertility, the unexpected happens. Your feelings about yourself and your relationship with others and your belief in God are confused and complicated. Dancing Upon Barren Land: Prayer, Scripture Reflections, and Hope for Infertility is a helpful companion for those dark, lonely days.

• Specific Prayers Topics and Supporting Scripture

• Helpful Truths to Living Life While You Wait

• Supporting Ideas for Family Members or Friends

• Resource Aid for Ministry Leader

• Discussion Topics for Support Groups

---

About the Author: Lesli Westfall is no stranger to infertility. She experienced the painful emotions and asked God endless questions, but God turned her disappointments into appointments with Him and healed her from the grief of infertility. While leading a Christian infertility support group, Lesli formed a deep compassion for others dealing with the pain of childlessness. She created a Christian online ministry, Dancing Upon Barren Land–Spiritual Nourishment for the infertility Road.

From the Dust Jacket: Dear Barbara, Dear Lynne is a heart-breakingly tender story of the desire for parenthood and the deepening friendship between two women who have known each other only on paper.

Barbara Shulgold and Lynne Sipiora met through the mail when one of them responded to a desperate letter the other had written to RESOLVE, a newsletter for infertile couples. These two brave women, complete strangers, bound by their common struggle to have a baby, began a correspondence that fortified them through three years of infertility traumas and adoption struggles—relying on each other for the support and understanding only another woman could bring. At first tentative, later deeply loving, the letters are an astounding document of friendship and the journey to motherhood. Dear Barbara, Dear Lynne is a testimony to the human spirit, the power of shared travail, and the joy of finally holding one’s face against the soft, sweet skin of a day-old infant.

---

About the Author: Barbara Shulgold lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and their two daughters.

Lynne Sipiora lives in Indiana with her husband, stepdaughter, and two sons.

From the Publisher: Dear God, Why Can’t I Have a Baby? provides women and “couples-in-waiting” with tools, direction, guidance, hope, and encouragement not to lose faith in God, or in each other, as they strive to share their love with a child. Rachel’s cry of barrenness in Genesis 31:1, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” is a wail that still echoes around the world, as one in six couples experience infertility. Infertility statistics are staggering: nearly 6.1 million women and 2.1 million married couples in the United States will experience difficulty having a child. Onlookers, and sadly even churches, often treat these “empty arms” couples with indifference, platitudes, criticism, or minimize the pain of miscarriages and stillborn babies. Couples struggling with infertility say they often feel alone and ostracized in their own churches and families. As a result, many infertile couples grow desperate, and some like Rachel, even feel suicidal when denied the one dream they have had since childhood-having a baby. This book seeks to ease readers’ pain and accompany them on their infertility journey by offering: companionship, a place to cry, a way to journal and keep records, and most importantly, the strengthening of their faith in God.

---

About the Author: Janet Thompson has a heart for this topic because of her own infertility scare as a young newlywed and from watching two of her daughters try to fulfill their heart’s desire to become mothers. She is the founder and director of About His Work Ministries, and an author and speaker on topics relevant to today’s Christian. In 1995 she founded and led the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. She holds an M.A. in Christian Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary, and is the author of numerous books, including Face-to-Face Bible Study Series, (New Hope, 2009), Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter (Howard, 2008), and Dear God, They Say It’s Cancer (Howard, 2006). She lives in Orange County, CA.

From the Back Cover: After struggling for eight years with doubts, dashed hopes, loneliness, and well-meaning but ignorant advice, John and Sylvia squarely faced these questions: Is infertility a curse? Why, God, does everyone around us have babies and our arms are empty? Now they share the insights gained and often painful lessons learned while they tried to cope with their infertility.

Joe S. Mclihaney, Jr., a Christian obstetrician-gynecologist who has an extensive infertility practice, clearly explains medical procedures connected with the diagnosis and treatment of infertility. Especially helpful is his chapter on what constitutes an infertility workup. Time and again his precise comments on a complicated procedure clear away confusion and enable couples to evaluate accurately its merits for their particular situation.

The unique feature of the book is the combination of perspectives on infertility: husband, wife, physician, pastor, and counselor. The result is a sensitive, comprehensive discussion, one that will prove significantly helpful to all who are affected by infertility.

---

About the Author: The Van Regenmorters live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where John serves as pastor of the Shalom Christian Reformed Church. Both are graduates of Calvin College. John has received advanced degrees from Calvin Seminary (M. Div.) and North American Baptist Seminary (D.Min.).

Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., began his obstetrical/gynecological practice in Austin, Texas, in 1968. Much of the commentary in this book was adapted from a chapter in his recently released book on women’s medical concerns, 1250 Health-Care Questions Women Ask.

---

By the Same Author: Dear God, Why Can’t We Have a Baby? (1986, Baker Book House) and When the Cradle is Empty: Answering Tough Questions about Infertility (2004, Tyndale House Publishers).

---

Compiler’s Note: See, particularly, Chapter 11: Adoption as an Option (pp. 139-148).

From the Publisher: An intimate memoir of courage and sacrifice in a cousin’s bid to deliver her cousin and his wife the gift of a child. Honest, touching and sprinkled with humorous and awkward moments, it is a story of giving, of hope and of triumph over adversity.

Struck by cancer, Lauren cannot carry a baby, but, with embryos frozen in storage, she and her husband, Henry, can still have a child of their own with the help of a surrogate mom. Wishing to offer her cousin hope in the face of devastating infertility, Pamela MacPhee volunteers to be their surrogate.

After navigating the psychological evaluations, doctor examinations, and legal necessities of surrogacy, MacPhee begins a challenging emotional and physical journey. It all becomes real on the day she watches Lauren and Henry stand silently in awe, listening to a rapid pounding ultrasound heartbeat that confirms a pregnancy.

---

About the Author: Pamela MacPhee grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and graduated from Stanford University in 1986. She lives with her husband and three children in San Diego County where she writes, volunteers, hikes and drives twenty thousand miles a year to the multitude of athletic, social, and educational activities that engage her family.

From the Dust Jacket: It was a small-town Mother’s Day story—drawn from the annals of high technology. She was a third-grade teacher turning forty; he was a mining engineer planning for early retirement. After seventeen years of marriage, their most heartfelt prayers were answered with the birth of their child. What many of their neighbors never knew was that the baby boy was the joyous result of experimental microsurgery, performed when he was only a few cells floating in a laboratory dish....

In Designs on Life, award-winning science journalist Robert Lee Hotz takes us behind the scenes of research on human conception—into the clinics and laboratories, and into the hearts and minds of the researchers and couples who have given rise to a new industry of conception. We follow the work of Jacques Cohen, a maverick embryologist who is pioneering a field in which the goal of every experiment is a healthy newborn child. In a laboratory plastered with comic-relief tabloid headlines like “Docs Deliver Baby Frozen For 600 Years”—we see Cohen work his wizardry. And we see leading researchers around the world experimenting with startling new innovations, including “assisted hatching” of embryos; genetic testing of embryos; women giving birth past menopause; and, through frozen embryos, fraternal twins born years apart.

Designs on Life also shows us the true driving force in this arena of stunning change: the would-be parents, who lobby for and finance these technological breakthroughs which no federal medical board or congressional panel will authorize. We share the agony of such couples as the Hobarts, who endure numerous costly and painful in vitro fertilizations only to remain childless. With author Robert Lee Hotz, we explore the unexpected legal and ethical riddles posed by the reproduction revolution, which can result in a case such as that of the divorcing couple in Tennessee who are battling one another for custody of their seven frozen embryos. And we gaze through a microscope at a human egg and sperm at the moment of conception, their electronically enhanced colors like o sunset on the glass slide.

Filled with dramatic real-life stories and distinguished by brilliant journalism, Designs on Life is a fascinating, provocative exploration of some of the most astounding developments in twentieth-century science.

---

About the Author: Robert Lee Hotz is an editor and science writer for The Atlanta Constitution and The Atlanta Journal. Twice he has won the national science writing award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he was a Jury Selection for the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism. He lives with his wife, Jennifer Arlen, in Atlanta.

Diapers on the Clothes Line takes a unique look into the joys and challenges that occur through the journey of infertility. Written from a Christian point of view, Hannah unashamedly takes aim and smashes current views of how to deal with infertility. Laying claim that no woman by God’s design has to go through depression to heal and get through infertility, Hannah asserts her solid faith in a gentle, but honest way. Although Hannah and Kaloyan do not have children but rather, they are currently pursuing adoption. The goal in their lives was not how they had their children yet how they pursued God through the process of obtaining parenthood. God has been so faithful to continue to encourage and lift up their family.

Whether an infertile woman ever conceives is often dependent on the doctor she chooses. Although Linda presented with common symptoms associated with infertility, Dr. A. Loof, a “specialist,” told her that her pain was “in her mind” and suggested she “drink a glass of wine and relax” to rectify her problem. An incorrect medication dosage, prescribed by Dr. Doubtful, caused her disease to return to its initial severity. After years of consultations, medications, surgeries and emotional pain, she was back where she had started. Learn how she and her husband eventually created the family they longed for. This book provides resources and options for any couple struggling with infertility. Dr. Khatamee, a world-renowned infertility specialist, presents numerous case studies, discusses the most current tests available, what each entails and when testing should commence. The prevention of infertility and preservation of fertility are addressed. Adoption may be the right choice for you and information and resources are provided should you choose this option. Every couple deserves the best in fertility care. That’s the premise of the book Doctor, Are You Listening?: A Couple’s Struggle to Find the Right Infertility Doctor. The book is co-authored by Linda Perelman Pohl and Dr. Masood Khatamee. It follows Linda and her husband, Stuart, in their quest to become parents. For many years, they saw doctor after doctor who “claimed” to be infertility experts, but, sadly, were not. Physicians in all areas of medicine must learn to listen to their patients. This is particularly so in treating infertility, where emotions often run high. Doctors must be held accountable for their actions. Only if you educate yourself as to what you can do to help your doctor to truly understand your problems, will the doctor be better able to treat you. The book will help patients and their families recognize signs that a doctor may not be the expert he or she claims to be. The book tells how to find a board-certified infertility doctor near you; what to do to get the most out of your doctor’s visit; what options and resources are available and state-of-the-art techniques that may lead to pregnancy. Finding the right doctor is essential.

From the Prologue: Twelve percent of all women of childbearing age struggle with infertility, or one in eight couples. This percentage is even higher for older women. About one-third of women over thirty-five have trouble getting pregnant.

But despite the fact that so many women struggle to have a child, most of them feel alone, in part because those closest to them don’t know what to say or how to say it. Perhaps you are one of these people. You don’t want to offend your friend; you don’t want to make her sad; you don’t want to intrude on her privacy. But you also don’t want her to feel alone. You want to offer love and support and the opportunity to discuss what she is going through.

This book will act as an intermediary between you and your Infertile Loved One (or ILO, for short), helping you walk the line between supportive and intrusive during her experience of infertility diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. It will tell you both what to say and do, and what not to say and do, while your Infertile Loved One is struggling to build her family.

---

About the Author: Zahie El Kouri writes about infertility and immigrant culture, sharing her experience of surviving infertility through personal essays and articles that address with humor, intellect, and empathy the needs and concerns of infertile women.

Zahie has taught creative writing at the University of North Florida and the University of Oregon Law School, and legal writing at Santa Clara University and Florida Coastal School of Law. She holds a JD from Cornell Law School and an MFA in creative writing from New School University. Her work has appeared in Ars Medica: A Journal of Medicine, the Arts, and Humanities, Mizna, Memoir Journal, Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction, Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, and FullGrownPeople.com.