Fertility Books - Page 8

Sweet Grapes: How to Stop Being Infertile and Start Living Again

Jean W. Carter, Michael Carter

Amazon Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Perspectives Press (IN) Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $0.67

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Positive Spin on Bad Luck 4 out of 5 stars.
31 of 43 people found this review helpful.

This book presents rules that worked for the authors, but may not work for everyone. They certainly don't work for me.

This is meant to be a comforting, positive book for those who lost out in the fertility sweepstakes. It is often Pollyanna-ish -- the authors suggest "helping" careers such as social work and teaching, pets, gardening and hobbies as substitutes for having children, which seems rather bizarre. I don't experience these things as remotely comparable.

They fail to address the knotty issues, the real reasons why people couldn't try to have children until it was too late. While the authors seem to assume that all parents and in-laws want grandchildren, my husband and I were hesitant because we grew up in stressed-out families, both of which (especially his, who disapproved of our interfaith marriage)discouraged us from having children. They don't address the common scenario of boyfriends dragging their feet to the altar, and husbands wanting to put off and put off having children until the wives are too old, and so the infertility heartbreak begins.

The authors made their childfree decision in their early thirties -- which seems ludicrously early to give up hope. I don't buy their recommendation that it's bad to "drift" -- leave things up to fate. They started using birth control again, instead of leaving it to chance that they might be blessed with a late, surprise baby. I know one couple who did the fertility treatment route, resigned themselves fairly happily to childlessness, and then the wife got accidentally pregnant at 45, and they are the happiest parents in the world.

I tried to embrace "childfree" in my late thirties, after fertility treatments dramatically worsened a chronic illness, which brought additional money worries into the picture. The authors don't cover a situation like mine -- where adoption turns out not to be an option. I really had no choice, so why should I say I chose child free? The authors only define three scenarios -- biological children, adoptive children, and happily child free. Those who experience themselves as childless, they say, are doing something wrong.

These authors have a very close marriage, and happy, fulfilling careers. Not everyone is so lucky to have that strong bond to fill the void of childlessness.

The authors oversimplify a complex situation that is subject to each person's experience. I can't agree that all their recommendations will lead to resolution. Life is never fully resolved. Despite my efforts to embrace "child free" the hand fate has dealt me periodically casts a shadow over my life. Some days my life is so challenging that I thank God I'm not subjecting innocent children to it. But most days it's society that makes me feel child-less. Other times, I genuinely experience life that way. It's wrong of the authors to deny my or anyone else their truth. There are no absolutes in life, no one size fits all formulas.Some things you never get over.

The Whole Person Fertility Program(SM): A Revolutionary Mind-Body Process to Help You Conceive

Niravi B. Payne

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I think the other reviews are based on the free preview... 1 out of 5 stars.
30 of 51 people found this review helpful.

I've *actually* read the entire book and it's a peice of trash, I actually threw it away it disgusted me so much. The author said that if you don't tell people you're pregnant your baby will think he/she is not wanted and you can miscarry because of that! Unbelievably ignorant, this author has obviously never dealt with miscarriage or infertility. I picked up this book thinking it would have natural remedies(you know like herbs) and it's a lot of meditations and visualizations which is fine and good for anyone trying to conceive but with infertility I don't care how many times I pray to buddah it's just not going to happen without a doctor's help. Don't waste your time on the rest of the book, it's not worth it and they wouldn't give a huge preview if it was

Editorial Review:

THE LANGUAGE OF FERTILITY provides a unique program for conscious conception that includes the Whole Person Fertility Program, offering exercises and visualizations for uncovering and exploring family histories, beliefs, and emotions that can affect fertility--and much more. 7 illustrations.

The Belated Baby: A Guide to Parenting After Infertility

Kelly James-Enger, Jill S. Browning

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cumberland House Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $1.52

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Approximately 7.3 million American women have struggled with infertility. Most of them, whether or not they use fertility treatments, do not realize that when they have their baby (or babies) -- whether through birth or via adoption -- the echoes of their infertility will be felt long after they are living out their dream of having their own baby.

Jill S. Browning and Kelly James-Enger explain that infertility is a mind-set and that every woman who experiences infertility is forever changed, even when she eventually has the child she yearned for. When many women who have gone through fertility treatments describe their experience, they say it "abused their soul." The experience may have also hurt their relationship with their husband and sometimes permanently altered relationships with their extended families. Studies show that even after the desperation of infertility subsides, emotional wounds still fester and an asterisk accompanies her bundle of joy.

Infertile women often find themselves mentally unprepared for motherhood. They feel they have no right to complain about the frustration and confusion that all new sleep-deprived parents experience. After all, they worked so hard to have a baby and, moreover, spent thousands of dollars for costly procedures. They also may be conflicted about working, even if their families need the income. She's waited so long for this baby. How can she leave him or her to go back to work?

The Belated Baby supports the message these women need to hear. It guides readers through the transition from being an infertile patient to parenthood, and it reveals how infertility shapes them as a parent. It will also be a hopeful source for couples currently in the throes of infertility, offering encouragement that there is happiness and life after infertility.

Infertility For Dummies (For Dummies (Health & Fitness))

Sharon, RN Perkins, Jackie Meyers-Thompson

Amazon Price: $14.95 List Price: $21.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $2.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Are you having problems becoming pregnant? You’re not alone; over 7.2 million Americans are facing the same challenges of infertility. Though some non-experts say that it’s all a matter of relaxation or taking medication, you need clear, straightforward, and trustworthy answers from healthcare professionals without feeling insulted, humiliated, or scared.

Written with compassion as well as professional knowledge, Infertility for Dummies combines comfort and expertise to walk you through your journey to becoming pregnant. This plain-English guide explains how infertility affects both men and women, while covering the latest treatments. It covers all key areas, including:

• Determining if you are infertile
• Maintaining a healthy relationship with your partner
• Making healthy pre-conception lifestyle changes
• Understanding the male and female anatomy
• Techniques for timing your conception
• Different ways to diagnose infertility
• Dealing with early pregnancy loss
• Finding the right doctor
• Different types of alternative insemination
• New advances and concerns in infertility
• Improving your chances of conceiving

Infertility for Dummies includes strategies for dealing with family and friends — what to expect from them, how to deal with inappropriate comments, and understanding that they are just trying to help. This book also provides the names and profiles of fertility medications and where you can find them.

Everything Conceivable: How the Science of Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Our World

Liza Mundy

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Anchor Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $7.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Sensationalized, Inaccurate Portrayal 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 15 people found this review helpful.

The author relies on the most controversial headlines rather than the "average" fertility patient. She sensationalizes something that is rather mundane in many ways.

Focusing on gay couples, HOMs, and other sensational stories while selecting inaccurate pictures of the current state of the ART business in the USA leads to a misleading book. A better book is The Baby Business by Debora Spar. Though, she does fall short, Ms. Spar's book is much more accurate and less sensationalistic.

Editorial Review:

Award-winning journalist Liza Mundy captures the human narratives, as well as the science, behind the controversial, multibillion-dollar fertility industry, and examines how this huge social experiment is transforming our most basic relationships and even our destiny as a species.

Skyrocketing infertility rates and dizzying technological advances are revolutionizing American families and changing the way we think about parenthood, childbirth, and life itself. Using in-depth reporting and riveting anecdotal material from doctors, families, surrogates, sperm and egg donors, infertile men and women, single and gay and lesbian parents, and children conceived through technology, Mundy explores the impact of assisted reproduction on individuals as well as the ethical issues raised and the potentially vast social consequences. The unforgettable personal stories in Everything Conceivable run the gamut from joyous to tragic; all of them raise questions we dare not ignore.

Inconceivable: Finding Peace in the Midst of Infertility

Shannon Woodward

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A WOMAN'S JOURNEY FROM HEARTACHE TO PEACE 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book shares the author's journey of learning to accept the fact that she'll never be able to conceive children. Her story begins in 1988, when her doctor discloses the dreaded news. She said his words became like "a constant, haunting hum in my head, like a song you can't shake -- a song with the power to drive you insane. His voice was inescapable."

Shannon Woodward explores her pain and subsequent healing in intimate detail for readers. She takes us back to her childhood, where she first looks out at the stars and wonders if God even exists, and she shares with us how her faith began to grow.

She takes us with her to every scene, filling each memory with description and dialogue which reads like the best of storytelling. We reach the point with her when she and her husband decide to adopt -- and we agonize with her frustration when birth mother after birth mother changes her mind.

One of the most poignant scenes in the book is when she and her husband are bringing home their first adopted son, Zachary, whose name means, "The Lord has remembered." As their new little son is bundled in soft blankets in the car seat, she and her husband look up and see an oversized, lighted marquis hovering above a used car lot. In bold black letters, the sign reads, "Congratulations, Dave and Shannon. It's a boy." They never learned who wrote that message.

The book takes readers up to the present, where we see how Shannon's journey has helped her become a mother to many. She has an active ministry in mentoring and encouraging hundreds of women through her speaking and writing.

There are some books I read once, then set aside, without feeling a change. Shannon Woodward's book is one I'll read again and again, always remembering how the blessing of motherhood is a gift not to be taken lightly. The back of the book contains a wonderful reader's guide which includes discussion questions for each chapter.

This is a must-read for anyone who struggles with infertility; Shannon's transparency gives readers the support they need to move toward peace.

Editorial Review:

Women who are anxious to conceive—and who have yet to conceive—know about waiting. Waiting is the hallmark of infertility. You wait in doctors' offices. You wait to ovulate. You wait for prescriptions to be filled. You wait for the pregnancy test indicator to light up. You wait for a miracle, and then you wait again.

Inconceivable is the remarkable true-life story of Shannon Woodward—a woman who stopped waiting her life away. She wrote this book for other women who've been waiting—for women who can't afford the next round of medical treatments, who can't bear to let their feeble hopes rise again only to have them crash to the ground in disappointment.

Woodward revisits eighteen years of personal frustration, pain and anger. She speaks of healing, but not the kind that other women in her condition have prayed for. The healing she has experienced is the healing of walking another path—the path of peace that she is uniquely equipped to share.

Longing for a Child: Devotions of Hope for Your Journey through Infertility

Kathe Wunnenberg

List Price: $14.99 By: Zondervan Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $7.32

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Not Alone 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Kathe touches the heart of those who are going through the pain of infertility because she has been there. This is not just a book reporting what others are feeling. She captures the heartache because she has born it too. This is a good book for working through current emotions or preparing for future healing. I found the devotional chapters mirrored my own journey of emotions. I highly recommend this to anyone who has dealt with or is dealing with the pain and frustration of infertility. I would also give this as a gift to anyone struggling in this area.

Wrap Yourself Up in This Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Kathe Wunnenberg's ability to speak to a woman's hurting heart is unparalleled. Her deep love of women and the friendships that God has put into her life have created a rich quilt of stories that you will want to wrap yourself up in! As a childless woman myself, God has used Kathe's insight to comfort me, encourage me, and inspire me. This book will be a regular gift that I will provide to girlfriends who are struggling with childlessness.

Editorial Review:

Those struggling with infertility will appreciate this sixty day devotional companion of hope, healing, and encouragement, arranged by theme, featuring Scripture, devotional reading, prayer, space for journaling, and reflective questions.

Choice: True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion

Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont

Amazon Price: $11.25 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: MacAdam/Cage Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $4.68

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

CHOICE explores the one of the most polarizing political issues of our time reproductive choice.

CHOICE attempts to raise the discourse on reproductive choice, which often devolves to clichés and name-calling, by posing the question--what is it like to make any sort of reproductive choice? What is it truly like to use birth control, the morning after pill, use a sperm bank, have an abortion, adopt a child, give a child up for adoption, bring a pregnancy to term?

In these 22 stunningly honest essays, writers describe their experiences making some of these decisions, as well as many others. Established writers such as Francine Prose, Jaquelyn Mitchard, Pam Houston, Carolyn Ferrell, Ann Hood, Deborah Macdowell, and Sarah Messer contribute essays, along with emerging writers such as Kimi Faxon Hemingway, Stephanie Anderson, and Ashley Talley.

The essays in CHOICE explore the complexities inherent in every reproductive decision, whether it is to choose to have a child or terminate a pregnancy; the guiding philosophy of the book is that this issue is too complex and individual to be legislated, and the writers honesty about their experiences will humanize this issue, no matter what the reader s stand on it.

Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy

Kristin Luker

List Price: $27.50 By: Harvard University Press Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $0.87

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

As her little boy plays at a day care center across the street, Michelle, an unmarried teenager, is in algebra class, hoping to be the first member of her family to graduate from high school. Will motherhood make this young woman poorer? Will it make the United States poorer as a nation? That's what the voices raised against "babies having babies" would have us think, and what many Americans seem inclined to believe. This powerful book takes us behind the stereotypes, the inflamed rhetoric, and the flip media sound bites to show us the complex reality and troubling truths of teenage mothers in America today.

Would it surprise you to learn that Michelle is more likely to be white than African American? That she is most likely eighteen or nineteen--a legal adult? That teenage mothers are no more common today than in 1900? That two-thirds of them have been impregnated by men older than twenty? Kristin Luker, author of the acclaimed Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, puts to rest once and for all some very popular misconceptions about unwed mothers from colonial times to the present. She traces the way popular attitudes came to demonize young mothers and examines the profound social and economic changes that have influenced debate on the issue, especially since the 1970s. In the early twentieth century, reformers focused people's attention on the social ills that led unmarried teenagers to become pregnant; today, society has come almost full circle, pinning social ills on sexually irresponsible teens.

Dubious Conceptions introduces us to the young women who are the object of so much opprobrium. In these pages we hear teenage mothers from across the country talk about their lives, their trials, and their attempts to find meaning in motherhood. The book also gives a human face to those who criticize them, and shows us why public anger has settled on one of society's most vulnerable groups. Sensitive to the fears and confusion that fuel this anger, and to the troubled future that teenage mothers and their children face, Luker makes very clear what we as a nation risk by not recognizing teenage pregnancy for what it is: a symptom, not a cause, of poverty.

The Brotherhood of Joseph: A Father's Memoir of Infertility and Adoption in the 21st Century

Brooks Hansen

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

While miracles in reproductive technology have brought joy to millions, those very advances have plunged many couples into an unrelenting cycle of hope and heartbreak. One failed attempt may lead to another and another—but how do you give up when there is always another doctor, another procedure holding out the possibility of conception and the child you yearn for? Brooks Hansen vividly captures the emotional turmoil he and his wife, Elizabeth, endured as they tried to concieve, the years their lives were put on hold, and the excruciating sense of loss. He writes too of the couple’s journey through the bewildering world of adoption—a path to parenthood fraught with financial, legal, and emotional risks of its own.

Offering men a chance to be heard and women a rare opportunity to view the struggle with infertility from a male perspective, The Brotherhood of Joseph brings to life the anger, frustration, humor, heartbreak, and sense of helplessness that come to dominate the husband’s role. As his remarkable account reaches its finale in Siberia, however, Hansen’s once again becomes the story of a husband and a wife who, even after years of medical frustration and fruitless paperwork, still must take one last risk together and trust in their most basic instincts before their new family can be born.

"Literary grace that has the remarkable power to act as a lens" is how the New York Times Book Review has described Hansen’s writing, and that grace has never been more evident than in this remarkable memoir.