Infertility doesn’t care about your ethnicity: Heart-breaking and inspiring stories about infertility, IVF, miscarriage and loss
Author: Sheila Lamb, Yemi Adegbile Category: Broken Brown Egg Mentioned, Memoir, Nonfiction, Social Justice Publisher: MFS Books Published: 2021 ISBN: 978-1999303570 Pages: 198 Find ItProceeds from this book support BBE!
When you find out that it may be challenging to become a mother when other women seem to achieve this quickly and easily, it comes as a huge shock. Then follows anger, sadness, shame, envy, grief, anxiety, depression, and loneliness – to name a few emotions.
When you are a Woman of Color, your immediate thought is that it must only be you because no-one else is talking about infertility or miscarriage. Or if they are, there’s a lot of shaming and blaming going on.
Please know that you are not alone and that it’s not your fault.
Finding other Black women, Women of Color and women from other ethnicities who know how you are feeling may have seemed impossible, until now. In Infertility doesn’t care about your ethnicity, you’ll find invaluable support – because dealing with infertility, fertility treatment, miscarriage, stillbirth, donor conception, surrogacy or living childfree after infertility, is anything but easy. All of these are taboo subjects in many cultures around the world, which leaves women feeling very isolated and alone.
Infertility doesn’t care about your ethnicity is not a book that cures infertility, gives medical advice or guarantees that IVF will work. It’s a book for Ethnic and Women of color around the world. All the women involved in this book share the emotional realities of their personal struggle. Most of them aren’t writers – their stories are in their own words with phrasing authentic to their culture, which will be recognizable if you’re from that community. Situations they share haven’t been embellished to shock you – they happened. They understand like no-one else does, what you are going through, and they know that reading their words will bring you comfort, validation and possibly hope; that however your future turns out, you too will be okay.
Their stories reveal:
• that IVF is not one-hundred per cent successful
• that after a woman has a miscarriage there are no guarantees that she’ll get pregnant the next time and give birth to her baby
• that when her baby is stillborn, she won’t ever ‘get over it’
• that she is a mother regardless as to how her child was conceived, and
• that being childfree after infertility takes immense strength and courage.
All of us hope that this book helps to open the narrative for Ethnic women around the globe, and that it will be a survival guide for women who are finding it a challenge to conceive. We also want it to be an excellent resource to people who haven’t experienced this struggle, especially healthcare professionals; doctors, nurses, midwives, sonographers, embryologists and receptionists, as well as those practicing alternative therapies, counsellors, coaches and therapists. Religious and community leaders can also offer much better support for these very valuable members of their organizations by understanding the trauma and devastation experienced when getting pregnant isn’t easy.
“A great book to read and share! Beautiful reflections about so many different journeys through infertility and loss. The authors have written encouraging and empowering love letters and given measured and sensible advice for communicating with others who don’t understand the infertility experience.” Camille TC Hammond MD MPH, CEO, Tinina Q Cade Foundation, CadeFoundation.org
The eBook version will always be free, download your copy from www.mfsbooks.com/infertility-doesnt-care
A small donation from the sale of each paperback book will be made to select charities that specifically assist Black, Indigenous and all Women of color who are finding it a challenge to conceive.