What is a “normal” family? And who gets to decide your normal? In today’s world, thanks to advances in assisted reproductive technology, modern family building is becoming the new normal. We like to describe modern family building as creating (or growing) your own family in an unconventional way,
using methods including adoption, IVF, egg donation, embryo donation, and surrogacy. You dream of a family – how you get there is totally up to you.
Whether you are a man or a woman, finding out that you have trouble with fertility can be shocking. Many never think in a million years they’d need assistance with having children. We grow up assuming everything will work as it needs to when the time is right. Until it doesn’t. And then what do you do? The disappointment that settles in can be extremely overwhelming and frustrating. Some just give up on the idea altogether and let their dream of having a family die. And then there are those who look into unconventional ways to have the children they desire through modern family building. I think modern family building is going to become the norm, between infertility rates rising at a substantial rate, the legalization of same-sex marriage, and the increase in single-parenthood-by-choice. So let’s dive in and discuss the ins and outs of modern family building in this first episode of The Fertility Café.
Here’s a sneak peek at the episode:
- (02:08) What is modern family building and is it really that popular?
- (06:17) I discuss our modern-day Wonder Women, surrogates and egg donors, who step into the most personal of spaces – the creation of a child – and are willing to take on the enormous challenge this entails.
- (07:22) Cancer. Traumatic pregnancy. Same-sex couple. I walk you through my three surrogacy journeys, where each set of intended parents had a different reason for looking to surrogacy to build their families.
- (09:42) The gestational carrier has parental rights. She carried and gave birth to the baby – it’s partially hers, right? Wrong! Let’s debunk some myths that have permeated the world of surrogacy and egg donation for far too long.
- (10:17) One in eight couples have trouble getting pregnant or sustaining a pregnancy. With those stats, no wonder modern family building is becoming the norm. Beyond general infertility, there are a number of other reasons that some families would choose to complete their family through adoption, egg or sperm donation, or a combination of both, embryo donation, and surrogacy.
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I loved your first podcast. I downloaded the transcripts and learned a lot about the founder and how she impacts the lives of modern-day families. What a wonderful company that allows others who normally wouldn’t have conceived a child to be able to create a family from the inception of a newborn. I love the idea of surrogacy and what you do. Thank you for sharing your wonderful story.