Creating a Family: Talk about Infertility and Adoption

On top of everything else infuriating about infertility, it can also be embarrassing.  Today’s your chance to ask those embarrassing questions that you would prefer to not ask even your own doctor.  Our guest expert is Dr. Jim Toner, a JIM TONER, MD, PHD, a board certified specialist in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility with the Atlanta Center for Reproductive Medicine.  For this show’s discussion his doctoral training in psychology may also come in handy. We will talk about sexually transmitted diseases, venereal disease, abortions, mixed emotions about motherhood, tampon use, sexual positions, frequency of sex, and any other questions you have about how to get pregnant and what is standing in your way.

What are the legal issues you need to be aware of if you are considering building your family with third party reproduction?  Join our guests Reproductive Law attorneys Ruth Claiborne and Amy Demma.  Ruth is with the adoption and reproductive law firm of Claiborne & Surmay,  with offices in Atlanta Geiorgia and a satellite office in Savannah., GA.  Ruth has been working in this area of law for over 30 years and is a member of the American Academy of Adoption Atty and the American Academey of Assited Reproduction Attys.  Amy Demma is a reproductive law attorney with the Law Offices of Amy Demma in East Hampton New York.  She is on the Advocacy and Legislative Committee for RESOLVE of New England, and is a member of the Legal Practitioners Group. of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.  Egg donation, donor egg, donor sperm, alternative family building, surrogacy, third party reproduction, infertility.

What should adoptive parents do in the first year home to encourage attachment?  Join our guest Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, founder and CEO of Center For Family Connections in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Dr. Pavao is a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and is a Clinical Member of the American Orthopsychiatric Association. She is a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  She says her most valuable credential is that she has experienced life as an adopted person and that she has great love and respect for both her birth and adoptive families. Creating attachment, bonding, adoption, adopting, adoptive parenting, nurturing, attachment parenting

How do US families living abroad adopt a baby from the US or adopt internationally while living outside of this country. Is it possible for non-US citizens to adopt a child from America?  Join our guest adoption attorneys Jim Thompson, with offices in  Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Irene Steffas with offices in Atlanta Georgia.

The monetary and emotional cost of infertility treatment makes many patients and doctors “try for twins”.  Is this safe? What can you do to maintain the odds of getting pregnant, but still reduce the odds of multiple births?  If you are pregnant with twins or triplets, what can you do to protect your babies.  Join our guest Dr. Mark Evans, Medical Director at Comprehensive Genetics in New York City, President of the Fetal Medicine Foundation of America, High Risk Obstetrician, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Risk of twins or triplets with in vitro fertilization (IVF). How to lessen the risk of multiple births with fertility treatment.

Significant savings may be had by going abroad for surrogacy, but significant problems may be had as well.  Fertility tourism is growing in popularity, but with third party reproduction intended parents must be very careful to make certain their child will be able to return to the US and have US citizenship. Join our guests: Carol Farrand, an attorney with the US Department of State in the Bureau of Consular Affairs,  Roberta Evantash, India Surrogacy Coordinator with Adoptions from the Heart; and Rudy Rupak , Founder and CEO of Planet Hospital.

Even if you completely embrace the idea of open adoption, there are situations that make it difficult.  How should adoptive parents navigate an open adoption in these situations.  Should they even try?  Join our guest, Nancy Burley, Executive Director and founder of Adoption Circle, an Ohio child placement agency. She has twenty five years of adoption experience working directly with all members of the adoption triad and is a state certified adoption assessor and one of the writers and trainers of the state required curriculum for certified adoption assessors. 

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and the Internet are  significantly affecting how people adopt and the relationships within adoptive families.  Should you friend your child's birth mother or birth father?  Should you prohibit your child from contacting their birth family via the internet social networks?  What can parents do pre and post adoption. Our guests are Dr. Martha Henry, Director of the Office of Foster Care and Adoption Education and Policy, and a developmental psychologist; and Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and author of Adoption Nation.

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) can be a devastating disease affecting many aspects of health, including fertility.  Our guest to talk about PCOS is Dr. Heather Huddleston, Medical Director of Center of Reproductive Health at UCSF and Director of Multidisciplinary Clinic for Women with PCOS. infertility, fertility, weight gain, insulin resistance, hair growth

Infertility tourism is becoming more popular.More infertility patients are considering cross-border reproductive care.  How can you find an infertility clinic abroad.  How do you know the success rate of the foreign infertility clinic. Is it safe?  What are the risks? How much does it cost to do IVF or ICSI or egg donation abroad.  Our guests to talk about how to go abroad for treatment will be Lauri de Brito, Co-Founder, Vice President of Global IVF.com and Taras Kuzin Founder and CEO of MedVacation.

Is it possible to adopt from Latin America? What countries in Central and South America are open to international adoption. How can you adopt a Hispanic baby or child in the United States? Our guests are Nancy Fox, Executive Director of Americans for International Aid and Adoption with a program in El Salvador; Beth Whitacre,Latin American Program Caseworker for the Gladney Center for Adopiton in Dallas Texas with international adoption programs in Honduras and Colombia; and Jennifer Lanter, Director of outreach and public information with Gladney. She is also a Lead Master Trainer for the National Council for Adoption for domestic adoption. Adopting from Mexico. Adopting from Guatemala. Status of international adoptions from Guatemala. Adopting from Colombia. Adopting from Peru. Adopting from Honduras. Adopting from El Salvador.

What countries in Africa are open to international adoption? What is the process and cost to adopt from Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo?  Are there ethical issues to consider with international adoptions from Ethiopia or other African countries. How can adoptive parents avoid the potential ethical issues with international adoptions from Africa? Adopting an orphan from Africa. Adopting from Ethiopia, Adopting from Uganda, Adopting from Ghana, Adopting from Congo, Adopting from Kenya, Adopting from South Africa, Adopting from the Sudan.

Is it possible for a woman to freeze her eggs or ovarian tissue to use later when she is ready to become a mother?  Are there any advantages to freezing eggs when going through IVF? Can frozen eggs be sued for a donor egg IVF cycle. Does it cost less to use frozen eggs for a donor cycle. Is it safe to freeze your eggs? Join our guests, Dr. Dan Shapiro is the medical director of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta and one of the founders of MyEggBank, the nation's largest frozen donor egg bank

  It is now possible to select the gender of your baby, but should you? What techniques are available? PGD gender selection? Natural sex selection methods. Are they effective? Can you utilize these sex selection techniques for family balancing? How much do these gender selection techniques cost.  Should you even try to select the sex of your baby? Join our guest, Dr. Harvey Stern to discuss the how, why, and should of preconception gender selection and family balancing.  Dr. Harvey Stern is the Director of Genetics and the Fetal Diagnostic Center at the Genetics & IVF Institute and is Dr. Stern is Medical Director of Fairfax Cryobank and of GIVF’s Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) program. He is board certified in pediatrics and medical genetics, with subspecialty board certifications in clinical, biochemical and molecular genetics.

What is the process for adopting from foster care? How long does it take, do you have to foster first, can you adopt a child from another state, should you work with a private or public agency?  We will discuss these and many more questions in thie Foster Care Adoption 101 type show.  Adopt US kids.  130,000 US children living in foster care are available for adoption.  Join our guests Jennifer Deazvedo, Waiting Child Adoption Coordinator for Children’s Connection Inc., Dr. Dixie Davis, Executive Director of The Adoption Exchange and the Wednesday’s Child Foundation which recruit and sustain families for children in foster care, and Jennifer M. Phillips, Adoption Supervisor with Lutheran Social Services of Southern New England.