Many people decide to adopt after they have been unsuccessful with infertility treatment. Infertility involves many losses and grief is a natural and common feeling, but it is important to come to terms with this grief before you adopt. We talk with Carole Lieber Wilkins, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in adoption, infertility, and third party reproduction. She is also a mom through adoption and egg donation.
Hit the Highlights
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Adoptive parenting is the same as, and very different from, genetic parenting.
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Ways in which raising adopted children is different. Ways in which it is the same.
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What are the losses of infertility.
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How to know when you are ready to stop fertility treatments and move to adoption. What are the signs of readiness?
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The myth of needing to do everything that you can to become pregnant before moving to adoption or third party reproduction.
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How have the advances in infertility medicine changed the landscape of moving to adoption?
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Coping with the unknowns of adoption?
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How to know when you are ready to adopt?
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How to say good-bye to the biological child that you never had?
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Tips for coping with the losses of infertility.
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Adopting while staying in treatment.
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Should you go back into infertility treatment after having adopted a child?
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Tips for deciding whether you should go back into fertility treatment after adoption.
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How to find a mental health professional that specializes in infertility?
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Image credit: Rakicevic Nenad
Music credit: Michael Ashworth