My Week

I had an eventful week, full of little milestones! It started on high point with a birthday party for our now 10-year-old niece on Sunday...
...and crashed today with the death of my laptop. Major bummer...I was pretty upset (I cried a little) when I realized it was not going to turn back on after shutting down unexpectedly (I have an appointment at the Apple Store on Monday-wish me and my MacBook luck). Back to all the good things that happened this week though.

Wednesday: I hit the 27 week mark! I am finally getting to the end of my second and entering my third trimester! This belly is about to get huge! Which means getting out of bed is going to get even harder and I will have to deal with being extra uncomfortable on top of my insomnia.

My growing bump: Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday

Thursday: January 29. In exactly 3 months our baby is due! I cannot wait for April!

Friday: Another appointment with our baby doctor! I don't know why, but I so look forward to these appointments! Maybe it is because each one brings us one month closer to meeting out little guy face to face. Everything is still looking good: normal blood pressure, I gained 7 pounds this month (more than I hoped, but she said most patients have a little extra jump in weight around this time) and I'm measuring at 29 weeks, which is a week and a half ahead of where I am. This explains my exhaustion: our baby has been growing a lot! I also got the DTAP vaccine and took the glucose test (again).

I go back in three weeks, then start going in for appointments every two weeks. We even get another ultrasound at 36 weeks (still 9 weeks away, but exciting)! She also asked if we want an epidural (yes please!), if I planned to breastfeed (another yes) and if we had picked a pediatrician yet (no...which means I have some homework).

Some other fun things happened this week also: my baby shower is scheduled (March 7), I've collected addresses and I created a registry.

I also found a new way to save money on Amazon: I joined Amazon Mom. Anyone who joins between now and February 10 has a month to order a package of select Huggies diapers for 50% off (plus I think an additional 10-15% off for being an Amazon Mom member). I just bought my first package of 120 diapers for only $11! Once I figure out which diapers work best for us, I can subscribe to have diapers automatically delivered every month or two and get 20% off. I am sure there are more perks I will discover later, but for now I can save on diapers and wipes, and get a discount on items added to my registry.

I have been looking at baby items for a while now, so I did my registry the simple way: I moved everything from my Amazon wish list to my baby registry (I still plan to go to BuyBuyBaby and create another one for friends and family who prefer shopping in a store rather than online). A wonderful perk of doing my registry on Amazon is that 60 days before my due date, Amazon will notify me and I will be able to complete my registry purchases for 10-15% off (up to $500 off)! I can get that discount on any item on my registry for up to 90 days after the baby is born. So I have added EVERYTHING to the registry. I don't expect friends or family to buy the big stuff for us, but I want to get it for a discount so it's listed on there.

The rest of the week has consisted of cooking, naps and all the time I can get with Ryan (who has been working long hours). I have cooked dinner every night and taken a nap every afternoon; baby makes me tired! I'll have a few days of sheer exhaustion then a week of feeling pretty good. This kid is definitely growing and it wears mama out! He should be over 2 pounds and about 14-15 inches from head to toe by now-that's twice the size he was a month ago!

Baby Boy has active days and sleepy days (just like me...growing must wear him out too). Some days his movements feel gentle and more inward, other days he pokes and kicks like crazy to the point my stomach seems to be constantly moving (until I try to catch it on video or Ryan tries to feel...then he sits completely still). He likes to squeeze my bladder, bounce on my cervix and run his feet along the base of my ribs--it's the weirdest feeling. Sometimes he kicks just the right spot and makes me jump, then he'll press his foot in that uncomfortable spot until I push on him and make him move. My being short limits his space in there so when I sit down I think he gets a little squished and he really acts up. As uncomfortable as pregnancy is, feeling my baby moving in there makes it worth it!

Our baby boy is also at the point now where he can taste, hear and see light and dark (makes me want to hold a flashlight to my belly and see what he does!) I think his favorite food is going to be grapes; I eat grapes every day and they always taste SO good! I've always preferred the green ones, but for the last few months I have craved the red ones instead (the bigger the better). I need to start reading to him and playing some of my favorite soothing songs so when he's born those songs will be comforting to him (okay...I admit it...I made a baby playlist to listen to in the car).

Even if pregnancy gets more uncomfortable as time goes on and I get more anxious every day, it also gets so much more fun as he gets bigger and I feel him more! A couple of times I have felt what I think is his little foot and sometimes his head (could be his butt or a knee...I'm not really sure). I can't wait until I can feel my stomach and tell you what body part is what!

One Year Ago: My First Shot in Florida

I can still remember one year ago today so vividly. Ryan and I were about to start the 3rd full day of our Florida vacation. Before our day began though I had to give myself my very first shot. I had watched all the videos and knew exactly what to do, but I was still so scared!

I remember carefully laying everything out on the counter in the kitchen of the condo we stayed in for the week and a half vacation. I had the vial of Lupron, 2 alcohol swabs and the little syringe and needle. I decided just to be safe I should follow along with the online instructional video the clinic had sent me the link to, so I also had my laptop set up and the video ready to play.

When I think back on it now I can put myself right back in that moment: standing alone and barefoot on the cool tile floor of the kitchen, while Ryan got ready in the bedroom. The only sound was that of of the wind making small waves on the lake and blowing the leaves of palm trees outside our open patio door. The sky was overcast and gray. The air in our room felt very much like the air outside: humid and cool, with the thick moisture in the air the temperature really was just right. I think the memory of these few moments is so vivid because of the anticipation of it. I've never been scared of needles, but I was so scared of giving myself a shot! I had known this day was coming and had built it up to be such a big deal in my mind.

I started playing the video and followed along, cleaning the top of the vial with the alcohol swab, drawing air into the needle, stabbing it into the top of the vial and pushing the air into the vial then turning the vial upside down and slowly drawing back until the liquid in the syringe hit the "10" mark. I made only one small mistake: I pulled the needle out of the vial without turning it right side up first and some liquid sprayed out of the top of the vial (no big deal, but at the time I remember hoping I didn't waste enough to make it so I wouldn't have a full dose later).

Next came the hard part. I used a fresh alcohol swab to clean the area a couple inches to the side of my belly button and fanned it dry. Then I pinched the skin and held the needle, ready to go in. The video ended and I just stood there staring at the needle, posed and ready, trying to work up the courage to take the plunge. I stood staring for a good 3 minutes. My thoughts were running back and forth between "I can't do this" and "you can do this". Finally I held my breath and jabbed the needle into the pinched skin of my tummy. I injected the medicine slowly and pulled the needle out, forgetting to release the pinch of skin until a drop of medicine oozed out. I let go and grabbed the alcohol swab to massage the area in hopes that no other liquid made its way out of the pin prick in my stomach.

It was done. It wasn't even that bad! The needle slid in so easily that I barely felt it! It was like slicing butter; at that moment I was grateful for my little layer of belly fat! It didn't even feel like a pin prick-it really felt like nothing. Still, I was so proud of myself! I told Ryan I had done it and then posted about it on Facebook so all my friends could be impressed by how brave I was. I knew tomorrow wouldn't be so hard. In fact, by the end of the trip I would be a pro-I could have everything prepped and the shot done in under a minute.

Next we gathered our things and headed out the door to go to Sea World. The area around where I had given my shot was burning and itching a little, so I pulled my shirt up to look at it as we walked out the door-I had a blotchy red spot around the injection site! I was a little surprised but not too worried (I was a little worried); I knew that a skin reaction was a possibility because this was a new medication. I still kept an eye on it for the first hour or so after we left. It ended up going away. I hoped it wouldn't be like that every time-it kinda hurt! I only had a mild reaction like that for the first few shots though then it literally was like nothing.

We spent the day of that first shot at Sea World. We had been to Sea World in California, but in Florida it is so much bigger! It was like a zoo and an amusement park rolled into one. We saw orcas, dolphins, penguins, sea lions, turtles, birds-all kinds of animals! But we spent the bulk of the day riding rides. Sea World had some of the best roller coasters of the whole trip! As silly as it is, knowing I couldn't ride a roller coaster right now in my pregnant state just makes me miss roller coasters that much more! I am so glad we were able to take that trip-it was the best vacation ever! (Click here for more details and pictures of that vacation...and some others...we've had some good trips).

Back to the shot...Lupron was definitely the easiest, least irritating on all of my injectable IVF medications! If I had known what was still to come (burning, bruising, welts, bleeding) I am not sure if that first shot would have been more or less frightening than it was! But I am so glad I am now feeling baby kicks instead of needle pricks--it makes all the shots, hormones and procedures worth it!

It's funny thinking back on that day now and "feeling" Florida...it makes me miss being there! (That and Ryan has been talking about that trip a lot lately). Because I gave myself my first shot in FLorida I guess you could say that Florida is where IVF began; we will have to go back for an Anniversary Celebration sometime after our baby boy gets here and meets his daddy (I already feel like I know our little guy...after all, we have been hanging our 24/7 for a while now)! 

Pressure and Pain

While struggling to get pregnant, I felt like there was so much pressure to become a parent. I did not realize how much pressure was on parents though-especially mothers! I feel like there is a lot of pressure on women lately, especially on social media, to make certain choices as a parent: exclusively breast feed, stay at home with your baby, make your own baby food, wear your baby, cosleep, have a natural birth, let your baby cry it out, etc.  Women who don't do everything just right are often made to feel like they are inadequate as parents.

Being that the first of these I will experience is the birth part, having a natural child birth experience is one of the pressures that seems to stand out to me the most right now. So many moms talk about all the benefits and sometimes it makes me feel like if I have an epidural (or end up needing a c-section as many women do) I'll be taking the easy way out or not be as much of a woman as those who have given birth unmedicated.

I have yet to feel labor pain, but I have felt physical pain. I've felt pain just enough to know that if I have a choice, I don't want to feel pain. It started with painful periods in my teen years. I had cramps painful to the point that I sometimes missed school. At the time I didn't know the cause, I just thought I had really bad cramps like some women do.

Sometimes I had pain in between periods too. Years later I would have to rely on prescription pain medication for the first 2-3 days of my periods to go about my normal routine and I sometimes even missed work for the pain in between my periods. I went to the doctor twice when the pain was so bad I thought one of my ovaries was about to explode. Ultrasounds always revealed cysts which my doctor began to monitor regularly until I had some that weren't going away on their own.

Surgery to remove the cysts would reveal severe endometriosis that had one ovary twisted and stuck to the side of my uterus. Using a laser they burned off the misplaced endometrial tissue. Recovery from that I imagine is similar to recovering from a c-section, but not as bad (smaller incision and less trauma to internal organs since nothing has to shrink back down to its normal size). I still could not sit up on my own for a couple of days or lift anything for a few weeks, but it only took a week to move normally without pain. After the surgery, with the help of the right birth control, the pain became bearable again.

Two years later, Ryan and I got married and decided to try to get pregnant. That is when painful tests came. First came the hysterosalpingogram, a type of ultrasound where they inject dye into my uterus and watch on a screen as it travels through my fallopian tubes to check for blockages. Luckily my tubes were all clear, but this still stands out in my mind as one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. It took my breath away and I squeezed the poor nurse's hand so tight I probably bruised the poor woman. It was the worst cramping type feeling I have ever had.

The next painful test over a year later was a sonohysterogram (which I had to have a second time just a few months after the first...read about the first one here and second one here). This is another ultrasound guided test involving fluid being injected into my uterus to check for abnormalities. Both sonohysterograms revealed polyps which had to be removed. Both surgeries were done under anesthesia so I didn't feel a thing (I also don't remember the procedures, thankfully) and the recoveries were pretty easy. But the sonohysterograms hurt! Again they feel like an intense cramping sensation every time the doctor pushed more saline into my uterus.

Lastly came the endometrial biopsy-also called womb scratching-which is just as bad as it sounds (read about that here). The doctor used a catheter to scrape the inside of my uterus with the intention of improving the chance of embryo implantation. I've had this done twice as well (luckily the second time it worked and I got pregnant). I hope I never have to have one of these again, but I know I might. The only thing that makes this procedure bearable is knowing that there is an end in sight. The doctor would make about 8 passes scratching the inside of my uterus so I always knew how much pain was left.

You never know how long labor is going to take: it could take an hour or 10. You can't see the finish line and don't know how long the race is. My point is that when you go into the pain you don't know how much longer you have to endure it before you're holding your baby. If women knew going in how long labor was going to take, more might choose a natural birth. I still don't know if I would consider it though. If I can do something to avoid experiencing pain-especially cramping uterine pain-I will. I haven't always had that option, but when it comes to labor, I am so glad that I can choose to not feel the pain of childbirth (I am sure the recovery will be painful enough for me!)

I don't think there is anything wrong with going all natural; I think it's a personal choice. (And I will admit that recovering in your own bed immediately after delivery makes a home birth sound somewhat nice). People say going through labor unmedicated is better for the baby, better for mom, makes recovery easier, reduces the risk of complications and speeds up the labor process. Nobody ever praises giving birth with an epidural. Is it just because it's so common? I have been witness to both a medicated and an unmedicated labor and both were hard work for the mom. Both moms also had healthy babies and recovered just fine. 

Moms talk about how empowered having a natural birth makes them feel and sometimes I think all this talk makes women who don't choose this route feel inadequate. I will agree that women have given birth without medication for centuries, but women and babies also used to die during childbirth much more frequently than they do today. Patients used to go through surgery without being numb also. We've made medical advances for the health, safety and comfort of patients in all types of medical procedures.

Modern medicine is a wonderful thing and I plan to take full advantage of it. Plenty of women still have short labor, healthy babies, no complications and normal recoveries even with an epidural. I think I am lucky to live when I do-modern medicine helped me get pregnant and I am going to let it help me deliver this baby too. I plan on taking full advantage of the conveniences available to me and this includes the convenience of choosing to not feel all that pain. I don't think any one birth plan is better than another-they all have their advantages and disadvantages.  

What is most important is what you feel is right for you and your baby. For some moms that means working full time because that is what makes them happy and a happy mom is a good mom. For some moms that means formula feeding because they can't breastfeed or because the baby needs the nutrition from formula. Maybe cosleeping isn't a feasible option for some couples so the baby is safer in their own bed. Instead of judging we should trust that each mom knows what is best for her baby in her situation. Being a parent is an important job--the job of people making, which is pressure enough on its own. Raising children itself seems like an empowering experience to me, even if it is exhausting at times.

How a baby is brought into this world isn't the empowering part. Even women who don't feel the full pain of labor still have to work to deliver their babies and their bodies go through so much (especially if they need a c-section). If feeling pain is empowering then why don't people choose to go through minor surgeries without anesthesia? What I think is empowering is the fact that a woman can nurture a single cell as it multiplies, develops and grows into a human inside her body. The creation and growth of life is the real miracle. The rest is just personal choice.

Celebrities With Infertility

In July of 2014, actress Jamie King posted a photo on Instagram with a caption about her experience trying to conceive her son James (born in October 2013). Since her son’s birth the actress has been open about how she struggled to become pregnant. She wanted other women struggling to conceive to know that they are not alone.

King admitted that becoming pregnant with her son was a long, difficult and painful experience. She endured 8 years of pain due to undiagnosed PCOS and Endometriosis, seeing nine different doctors before she found the one who diagnosed her and ended up saving her life from a severe ectopic pregnancy. In her nearly 5 year journey to become pregnant, she endured 5 miscarriages, 26 IUIs and 5 rounds of IVF, most with no outcome.

Kudos to King for reaching out and being so honest about a topic that is still kept so quiet-even in Hollywood where it seems no topic is off limits. There are more famous people out there who have struggled with infertility than one might expect. Very few talk about their infertility while they are going through it, but many open up and admit pregnancy did not come easy to them after the fact. A small few of them actually go into detail about the cause of their infertility and their experiences with treatments; I wish more would share their whole stories, but understand why they might be afraid or just wish to keep a little of their private lives private. Below are 12 more celebrities who had difficulty trying to get pregnant.

Nicole Kidman

During her marriage to Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman struggled to get pregnant. In a 2012 interview with the Australian magazine, Who, the star revealed, “I had tried and failed and failed and failed. Not to be too detailed, but I’ve had an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages and I’ve had fertility treatments. I’ve done all the stuff you can possibly do to try get pregnant.” These struggles are what led Kidman and Cruise to adopt Bella in 1992 and Connor in 1995.

Five years after her divorce from Cruise, Kidman married country singer Keith Urban in 2006. In 2008, at the age of 41, she gave birth to a daughter, Sunday Rose. After her struggles to become pregnant with Cruise, Kidman considered Sunday a miracle. “Every woman who has been through all those ups and downs knows the depression that comes with it. So the way it just happened with Sunday was like, “What?” The percentages were so low. It is the miracle in my life.”

Lightning did not strike twice for Kidman in the pregnancy department, but they were able to welcome another baby into their family: the couple’s second daughter, Faith Margaret, was born via gestational surrogate in 2010.

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson first started trying to become pregnant in the early 90s when she was married to actor and director Kenneth Branagh. At the time she was in her early 30s, but the couple would never have any children together. In 1997 she became pregnant with current husband Greg Wise, but sadly the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.

Thompson suffers from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a condition that affects a woman’s hormone levels which can affect ovulation and menstrual cycles among other things. It often makes getting pregnant very difficult. Thompson is one of the few famous people to actually open up about her infertility and its cause.

Thompson ultimately gave birth to a daughter, Gaia, in 1999 after her first round of IVF. She and Wise tried IVF two more times in hopes of giving their daughter a sibling, but after the two failed attempts called it quits, partially due to the fact that Thompson in her 40s at the time, which makes pregnancy more difficult on its own.

Celine Dion

Celine Dion underwent IVF for the first time in her early 30s. The treatment was a success and nine months later, in January 2001, she and husband of seven years Rene Angelil, welcomed their first son, Rene-Charles into their family. Having a second baby proved to be much more difficult; it took Dion six attempts at IVF before she became pregnant a second time. Twin boys, Eddy and Nelson, were born in December 2010.

“I thought as long as my health permitted me and unless my doctor thought physically I couldn’t do it, then I would go on with the IVF until someone told me to stop,” said Dion in 2013 to Mirror Magazine.

Deborra-Lee Furness (Hugh Jackman)

Hugh Jackman is another actor who is open about he and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness’ infertility struggles as he looks back to before they were parents. He admits that they tried IVF several times only to have the resulting pregnancies end in miscarriage. He even said in an interview with People Magazine that miscarriage is more common than you think, but it’s not really talked about, adding, “It’s almost secretive. But it’s a good thing to talk about. It’s more common and it’s tough, there’s a grieving process you have to go through.”

Jackman and Furness always knew adoption was a likely option for them (possibly due to the fact that she was already in her 40s when they got married). The couple is now parents to two children, Oscar (12) and Ava (7), who they adopted as infants.

Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields is another actress who has been very open about her infertility and its cause: cervical damage due to the removal of precancerous cells made it difficult for her to become pregnant. She and her husband tried multiple IUIs without success before her doctor ultimately recommended IVF for the best odds given her age (she was 36 at the time). Shields talks about the injections, hormones and tests (including egg retrieval) in her memoir Down Came The Rain. She became pregnant after their first round of IVF, but suffered a miscarriage.

She and her husband continued trying IVF without success for quite some time. In her memoir Shields even describes having to sneak away at gatherings with friends for her husband to give her an injection in a coat closet. After so many failures they had just about lost hope. Then in 2002 they decided to try one more time with their remaining four embryos. That resulted in in a single pregnancy and nine months later she gave birth to a daughter, Rowan.

Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox (Arquette) could get pregnant, but couldn't stay pregnant. She was one celebrity who was actually pretty open about her infertility struggles while she was going through the experience. She suffered several miscarriages, and learned that her problem stemmed from her body’s overactive immune response to a fetus. Basically her body attacked the growing fetus causing her to miscarry.

After years of miscarriages and infertility treatments, Cox's 40th birthday approached. Knowing that her chances of conceiving were declining due to her age, she and husband David Arquette decided to try IVF. After several attempts she became pregnant and this time she kept stayed pregnant. The couple welcomed their daughter Coco in 2004.

Marcia Cross

Marcia Cross had wanted to be a mother since before she was 30. As the years went by she realized her internal clock was ticking and marriage was not happening for her. She looked into adoption and even tried to get pregnant using a sperm donor at one point.

At age 40, Cross married stockbroker Tom Mahoney. She knew she would need help conceiving, so he couple decided to forgo the honeymoon and start infertility treatments right after their wedding. At the age of 44 Cross became pregnant with fraternal twins via IVF.

Although Cross has never confirmed or denied the use of donor eggs in conceiving her daughters, she has spoken out about the subject, saying that donor eggs do not make a baby any less perfect or beautiful, but that after 40 a woman’s fertility sharply declines and as she gets older so does the quality of her eggs.

I understand why women would want to keep quiet about the sensitive topic of whether or not they used donor eggs. Using donor eggs means that your child will have genes from that donor rather than the mother who carries the baby. What a parent decides to tell their child about their genetic beginnings is up to them, not the media.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Matthew Broderick tried for quite some time to become pregnant with their second child. Although she admitted that they tried many different options and were disappointed time and time again, she never admitted just what they tried. Eventually they were able to have twin daughters via gestational surrogate. She said that the hardest part was not being able to talk about it. To protect the woman carrying their baby from unwanted media attention, the couple kept the news quiet until just weeks before her surrogate gave birth. Unfortunately after the news broke her surrogate was hounded by the tabloids to the point that Parker was concerned for the safety of her babies and the surrogate.

Parker is another actress who has avoided questions about using donor sperm or donor eggs, but she has also not talked about what types of fertility treatments she herself underwent while trying to become pregnant. There are rumors that they struggled to become pregnant with their first son, so it is not surprising that it was even more difficult for Parker the second time around at the age of 45.

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey suffered a miscarriage and underwent various fertility treatments before becoming pregnant with her twins at age 40. She has not gone into much detail about what infertility treatments she used, other than saying that she used acupuncture to help her relax and progesterone supplements until week 10 of her pregnancy. Although she never admitted to using IVF, it is rumored that she did. Progesterone is not typically supplemented after a miscarriage unless the patient has used some for of Alternative Reproductive Treatment (ART)-like IVF-to become pregnant.

Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks and her husband of 20 years tried unsuccessfully for years to become pregnant. Banks admits she tried several fertility treatments including IVF with no luck. They eventually used a gestational surrogate and were able to welcome son, Felix in 2011 and then two years later another son, Magnus, also born via gestational surrogate. Banks was private about the topic, but also somewhat candid, calling her belly broken and explaining it as making a “babycake in another woman’s oven.”

Banks did explain that her problem was just that her embryos would not implant, which hints that she might have tried IVF. She also said they chose surrogacy (rather than adoption) because it was the only way for she and her husband to have a baby that was half her and half him.

Giuliana Rancic

E! host Giuliana Rancic and her husband Bill tried to get pregnant for a year before deciding to open up about their struggles with infertility on their reality show. After a failed IUI, the 35-year-old actress was told that her age was an issue: her eggs were too old. She was also told that she was underweight and needed to gain 5-10 pounds to increase her chances of conceiving.

The couple turned to IVF and she became pregnant on the first try. Unfortunately that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and the second attempt was unsuccessful. When they were getting ready to try a third time, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The cancer medication made her unable to carry a baby, so they ended up using a gestational surrogate. The couple welcomed their first baby, a son (Edward) in August 2012. Rancic’s breast cancer made her story quite different from many, but I love that she shared her struggles and her journey every step of the way through her reality TV show.

Nancy Juvonen (Jimmy Fallon)

Jimmy Fallon is another star who has been fairly open about he and his wife, Nancy Juvonen’s struggles with infertility. In fact, the couple just welcomed a second daughter, Frances, born via surrogate in December of last year. They weren’t open from the beginning: the couple did not tell anyone-not even their families-that they were expecting Frances or their first daughter Winne (born in July 2013) until each was born. However after the birth of Winnie, Fallon was very open about their struggle to become parents.

Fallon and his wife tried for about five years to get pregnant. He admitted in several interviews that they tried “everything” and even mentions injections and the embarrassment of telling friends of their baby hopes, just to have to turn around and explain that there was no baby. Besides the fun he had calling and telling people who had no idea they were expecting that they had a baby, I am sure part of the secrecy during the surrogate pregnancies was to protect themselves from having to share the news if something did go wrong.

Although they admit to trying “every avenue” in order to conceive, neither of them ever explains what the cause of their infertility might have been. I suspect this might be another age related infertility issue, as Juvonen was in her 40s when the couple started trying to get pregnant.


I don’t understand why more celebrities are not more open with their fertility struggles. If more people talked about it the topic would become less taboo. I understand that it is a hard road that might be better handled emotionally in private but why all the secrecy after the fact? Especially when they've already admitted they had a problem, why not tell what caused the infertility or how they overcame it? Babies are miracles on their own and IVF babies are also medical miracles. The fact that so many remain quiet about what infertility treatments they might have used after the fact just makes me think that many women still feel ashamed that their bodies did not work the way they were supposed to on their own. It is sad that society has made women feel broken when infertility is out of our control.