• This may be one of the best essays I’ve ever read about the impact of infertility on a marriage.   In Taking a Step Forward, the author captures perfectly the toll it can take and what one couple is trying to do to repair the damage.  Read it and send it to your friends and family that don’t “get” the emotional cost of being infertile.
  • This was too funny not to share. If you are an “older” parent or if you’ve ever eaten at a traditional Korean restaurant regardless of your age, read Middle Aged Mom @ New Seoul Garden, a blog by Jean MacLeod, author of “At Home in This World” and contributing co-editor of “Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections”.
    A round-up of the week's best infertility and adoption links.
    A round-up of the week’s best infertility and adoption links.
  • I loved this video of a 14 year old adopted from China talking about what adoption means to her.  It is unscripted, with only one question having been asked: What do you want to tell people.”  She’s been home since August. It’s interesting to see how far her language has come in the last 3 months. This one brought tears to my eyes.
  • Our cells have two copies of each chromosome, one inherited from our mother and the other from our father. An oocyte, the cell that matures into an egg cell, has to discard half of its chromosomes, keeping only the maternal or paternal copy of each. New research has found that the cellular machinery which separates chromosomes is extremely imprecise—they liken it to the children’s game of playing fish with a magnet on the end of a string.  These chromosomal errors result in infertility and miscarriage.  These results provide a very plausible explanation for the high rate of errors during egg formation especially as women age.  Researchers hope that this information will lead to ways to prevent some age-related female infertility.
  • File this sad story under “unfairness” or “cruel twist of fate”.  A woman who tried for years to have a baby, hemorrhages and dies within hours of the birth of her healthy twins. Michal Lura Friedman, a 44-year-old singer-songwriter known as “Michal the Girl,” and husband Jay Snyder had finally become pregnant after seven long years of trying, including multiple rounds of IVF.  To see pictures and hear Michal the Girl sing go to the family website. C-Sections, while not as safe as the general public thinks, are not considered a major risk, with 11 deaths in the US for every 100,000 C-Sections.
  • Found a new blog by a birth mother that I really like-Adoption in the City.  About her: “I’m a 31 year old birth mother from NYC. My son, J, was born on 5/13/2010 and placed with his adoptive parents M&P two days later. They are an amazing gay couple who also live in NYC. We have an open adoption, always a work in progress but so far its going well.”

 

Image credit:  thewomensmuseum