In this episode of Beyond Postpartum we hear from Myriam Steinberg who is a single parent by choice, who went through over 4 years of infertility and losses before conceiving and giving birth to her now two-year-old twins. She documented her journey along the way, and then turned her journey into an amazing memoir in the form of a graphic novel. And luckily for us, she also shares her story here with us!
We talk about:
- Her book!
- The circumstances that led her to chose to pursue her dream of having children on her own
- The process of choosing a sperm donor
- Becoming pregnant on her first try – and then experiencing the loss of that baby
- Making the choice to terminate a pregnancy when she found out there were genetic anomalies
- Moving from IUI to IVF
- Questioning her value and self-worth as a woman and a mother as she struggled to conceive
- How she decided to keep going, even when she started to lose hope
- Deciding to use donor eggs as well as donor sperm
- Epigenetics
- Intuition
- Her complicated pregnancy with the twins
- Their NICU journey
- Adjusting to parenthood and what it means to be the mother of living children
- Why she documented her fertility journey and why she chose to write her book
- The ceremony of remembrance that she does every year for the babies she lost
- How her journey to becoming a parent has influenced the way she parents her children
- The different discussions she has to have with her children because they were donor conceived
- The importance of community support through her whole journey
- How Covid has impacted her family
- The mental health impacts of her journey
- The lingering emotional impacts of infertility
- The lack of cultural understanding of how to support people through miscarriage and infant loss
- Connecting with people who have gone through similar experiences
Resources:
- Catalogue Baby Website
- @catalogue_baby on Instagram
- rtzhope.org
- MISS Foundation
