Creating a Family: Talk about Infertility and Adoption

Join me for my interview with Melissa Fay Greene about her new book on adoptive parenting--No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.  She is the mother of nine, five of whom were adopted internationally.  Her previous books include Praying for Sheetrock, The Temple Bombing, Last Man Out, and There is No Me Without You.  she has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Good Housekeeping, and The Atlantic. Her children were adopted from Ethiopia and Bulgaria.

Infertility is a devastating life experience for most women, but is it possible that it might also be a blessing? How can you survive infertility with your sanity intact? Join our guest, Helen Adrienne, psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist specializing in infertility in New York City, and author of On Fertile Ground: Healing Infertility.

Low stim IVF is also know as Low Stimulation IVF, Minimal Stimulation IVF, Mini-Stim IVF and Natural IVF. There are many health and cost advantages to using lower ovulatory stimulating drugs in fertility treatment, but is it as successful at getting you pregnant?  Is it possible to use no stimulation medications and still be successful at in vitro fertilization?  Join our guest Dr. Joe Massey, Reproductive Endocrinologist at CNY Fertility Center with offices in Syracuse, Albany, and Rochester, NY.

A diagnosis of cancer threatens not only your life, but also your plans for children after successful treatment.  Can you adopt if you’ve been treated for cancer in the past?  Can you go through fertility treatment if you’ve had cancer?  Should you? Join our guests Gina  Shaw, cancer survivor, mom through birth and adoption after cancer, and author of Having Children After Cancer; Dr.  Irene Su, Assistant Professor of Reproductive Medicine University of California, San Diego, a reproductive endocrinologist and epidemiologist studying reproductive outcomes in young female cancer patients, and last but not least she is the Assistant Director of the in the Oncofertility Consortium ; and Elizabeth Jurenovich, Exec. Director of Abrazo Adoption Associates in San Antonio, Texas and a Certified Professional Open Adoption Practitioner and has talked with many birth mothers considering placing with families where either the mother or father has been treated for cancer.  More important, she is a breast cancer and thyroid cancer survivor and underwent treatment during one pregnancy and gave birth to a second child post treatment.

March 30 Birth Mother Panel Answers Questions from Adoptive Parents A panel of birth mothers talking about adoption from their perspective and answering questions from adoptive parents. What is it like to place a child for adoption? What influenced their decision to choose one couple over another? What can adoptive parents do to make the hospital time post birth a little easier? What type of recognition on Mother’s Day feels best? And much more. Join our panel of four birthmothers to talk about adoption.

Infertility medications are very expensive, but there are ways to save money. Should you use a specialized pharmacy. Should you buy your fertility drugs online. Is it safe to buy fertility medications from another country. How much will your insurance cover of your fertility drugs. What type of discounts are available on infertility drugs. Join our guests Dr. Evelina Sterling, reproductive health researcher and educator, and author of Budgeting for Infertility: How to Bring Home a Baby without Breaking the Bank; Joy Lewin Business Unit Head, Reproductive Health at Ferring Pharmaceuticals; David Stern, Executive Vice President, Endocrinology, at EMD Serono; and Andy Gairani, VP Sales & Marketing at DesignRx, a network of Specialty Pharmacies and partners with various drug manufactures including Merck to help patients without fertility drug coverage.

Families headed by gay fathers have unique issues. Join our panel of three experienced dads and one counselor to talk about these issues and how they have handled them.

Children adopted from foster care or from institutions abroad may have experienced sexual abuse prior to adoption. What parenting techniques can help these children attach, feel safe, and heal. Join our guest Dr. Joshua Sparrow, Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Special Initiatives at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children’s Hospital, Boston. He has a monthly column on child development in the New York Times.

How can adoptive parents help their adoption agency or adoption attorney find a child for them to adopt? What can you do to shorten your wait in adopting a baby? Can you advertise and should you? Independent adoption vs. using an adoption agency. What is the process for adopting a child born in another state? Join our guest, adoption attorney Suzanne B. Nichols, with over 25 years’ experience in private domestic adoptions and now reproductive law in the areas of surrogacy and donor eggs. She is licensed in both New York and New Jersey .

Will your health insurance cover fertility treatment? How do you find out? Can you buy specialized insurance to cover IVF or other fertility treatments? How will the Health Care Reform Act of 2010 change Fertility Insurance Coverage? Fertility Insurance Coverage. Insurance for In Vitro Fertilization Insurance. Surrogacy Insurance. Infertility Treatment Insurance. Infertility Insurance Coverage. Our guests to talk about this are Lee Rubin Collins, Co-chair for Advocacy and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. A former big-firm lawyer, after her own experience with infertility Lee has dedicated her volunteer time to advocating for the rights and interests of others with infertility. We also have with us Trish Taylor, President and Founder of New Life Insurance Agency, specializing in insurance for all types of assisted reproduction technologies. Last but not least we have Linton White, Chief Operations Officer for Fertility Physicians of Northern California with over 25 years’ experience in health care administrative and physician practice management.

Healthy eggs and embryos are the key to success in fertility treatment, but most of us know very little about them. Join us to talk about how human embryos grow and implant into the woman's uterus. How long can embryos remain frozen. What is happening with egg freezing, PGD, PGS, and freezing embryos. What can you do to help your embryos implant during IVF. Our guest today is Dr. Michael Tucker, scientific director for both Georgia Reproductive Specialist (one of our wonderful sponsors) in Atlanta, Alpharetta and Decatur, Georgia and Shady Grove Fertility in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. Dr. Tucker has been a full-time clinical embryologist since 1983. His list of first’s is impressive: first intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) birth in the United States, first birth resulting from a testicular biopsy in the US, the first birth in the world from frozen donor eggs, and the first pregnancy in the world from immature eggs that were matured after thawing in the IVF lab.

Can you breastfeed your adopted baby or baby born through surrogacyor gestational carrier? Yes you can! Join our guests Dr. Lenore Goldfarb, Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Founder of the Goldfarb Breastfeeding Clinic at the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada, President of the Canadian Breastfeeding Foundation, and co-Author of Newman-Goldfarb Protocols for Induced Lactation. She is also a mom through surrogacy and successfully breastfed her two sons. We also have two moms through adoption who successfully breastfed. One who adopted domestically at birth, and one who adopted internationally and her son was 7 months old at adoption.

Transracial adoption “works”, but what exactly can parents do to help ensure that their children will grow up with a happy and health with a well formed racial identity. Join our guest Beth Hall, Founder and Director of PACT, a multicultural adoption organization dedicated to addressing essential issues affecting adopted children of color, and co-author of Inside Transracial Adoption. Natasha Sky is a multiracial woman and mother of four young multiracial children, who joined her family through birth and adoption. Natasha created the MultiracialSky website, a collection of resources for multiracial families.

Infertility affects millions in the US, but the cost of fertility treatment is beyond the reach of many. In this first of a three part series, we will talk about grants and loans for fertility treatment as well as programs offered by many fertility clinics such as shared risk, bundled plans, refunds, and discounts. Join our guests Dr. Camille Hammond founder and Exec. Director of the Cade Foundation, a nonprofit providing financial assistance and grants to families pursuing infertility treatment or adoption; and Dr. David Adamson a reproductive endocrinologist and Director of Fertility Physicians of Northern California in Palo Alto and San Jose, California. He is also the founder of Advanced Reproductive Care, a national network of infertility clinics innovative clinical and financial programs. ARC’s clinics are now in 40 states and currently provide approximately one-third of the in vitro fertilization services in the United States.

Infertility can rob you of so many things—including happiness. Is it possible to still be happy when in the midst of infertility. Join Dr. Ali Domar, international leader in the field of mind/body medicine and women’s health, founder of The Domar Center for Mind/Body Health, and author of numerous books including Conquering Infertility and Being Happy Without Being Perfect.