25 Things to Say (and Not to Say) to Someone Living with Infertility

To Say:

Let them know that you care. The best thing you can do is let your infertile friends know that you care.
Do your research. Read up about infertility, and possibly treatments or other family building options your friend is considering, so that you are informed when your friend needs to talk.
Act interested. Some people don’t want to talk about infertility, but some do. Let them know you’re available if they want to talk.
Ask them what they need. They may also appreciate if you ask them what the most helpful things to say are.
Provide extra outreach to your male friends. Infertility is not a woman’s-centric issue; your male friends are most likely grieving silently. Don’t push, but let them know you’re available.
When appropriate, encourage therapy. If you feel your friend could benefit from talking to a professional to handle his or her grief, suggest therapy gently. If you go to therapy regularly, or ever have, share your personal story.
Support their decision to stop treatment. No couple can endure infertility treatments forever. At some point, they will stop. This is an agonizing decision to make, and it involves even more grief.
Remember them on Mother's and Father’s Day. With all of the activity on Mother's Day and Father’s Day, people tend to forget about those who cannot become mothers and fathers. Remember your infertile friends on these days; they will appreciate knowing that you haven't forgotten them.
Attend difficult appointments with them. You can offer to stay in the waiting room or come into the appointment with them. But the offer lets them know how committed you are to supporting them.
Watch their older kids. Attending appointments may be difficult if they have older kids at home.
Offer to be an exercise buddy. Sometimes losing weight is necessary to make treatments more effective. If you know they are trying to lose weight, you could offer to join them because it would help you achieve your personal fitness goals as well.
Let them know about your pregnancy. But deliver the news in a way that lets them handle their initial reaction privately – email is best.

Not To Say:

Don't tell them to relax. Comments such as "just relax" create even more stress for the infertile couple, particularly the woman. The woman feels like she is doing something wrong when, in fact, there is a good chance that there is a physical problem preventing her from becoming pregnant.
Don't minimize the problem. Failure to conceive a baby is a very painful journey. Comments like, "Just enjoy being able to sleep late . . . .travel . . etc.," do not offer comfort. Instead, these comments make infertile people feel like you are minimizing their pain.
Don't say there are worse things that could happen. Who is the final authority on what is the "worst" thing that could happen to someone? Different people react to different life experiences in different ways.
Don't say they are not meant to be parents. “One of the cruelest things anyone ever said to me is, ‘Maybe God doesn't intend for you to be a mother.’” Infertility is a medical condition, not a punishment from God or Mother Nature.
Don't ask why they are not trying IVF. Because most insurance plans do not cover IVF treatment, many are unable to pay for the out-of-pocket expenses. Infertility stress is physical, emotional, and financial.
Don't push adoption or another solution. So often infertile couples are asked, “Why don’t you just adopt?” The couple needs to work through many issues before they will be ready to make an adoption decision or chose another family building option.
Don’t say, “You’re young, you have plenty of time to get pregnant.” Know the facts. It’s recommended that women under 35 see a fertility specialist after being unable to conceive for one year. Being young increases your chance of fertility treatments working, but it does not guarantee success.
Don't gossip about your friend's condition. For some, infertility treatments are a very private matter, which is why you should respect your friend’s privacy.
Don't be crude. Don't make crude jokes about your friend's vulnerable position. Crude comments like, "I'll donate the sperm" or "Make sure the doctor uses your sperm for the insemination" are not funny, and they only irritate your friends.
Don't complain about your pregnancy. For many facing infertility, it can be hard to be around other women who are pregnant. Seeing your belly grow is a constant reminder of what your infertile friend cannot have. Not complaining can make things a little easier for your friend.
Don’t question their sadness about being unable to conceive a second child. Having one child does not mean a couple feels they have completed their family. Also, a couple may have had their first child naturally and easily but are now experiencing secondary infertility - infertility that comes after you’ve already had a child.
Don’t ask whose “fault” it is. Male or female factor. Just because a friend has told you he or she is experiencing infertility as a couple, does not mean he or she wants to discuss the details.
On the other hand, don’t assume the infertility is female factor. 1/3 of infertility is female factor, 1/3 is male factor, and 1/3 is unexplained

I am not perfect at any of these and more then anyone hopes for P to have a sibling. I am always sending my love to this lovely family. I also am so confused by the emotions that someone living with infertility go through.

I don't know how to always be so good at the dos and how to avoid the don'ts.

XO

having a baby after placing

I don't know if I have talked about this but it has been on my mind because I have had a friend messaging me about it.

It is kinda weird having a baby for you and your family after you have placed a baby. There is a certain emotional wall that has to be put up during placing. Like with P, I always called him baby pop rocks or baby boy. After the first year with P being placed I feel like the worst was behind me but a lot of the "triggers" are our there that you start to turn off. like for me.
I didn't like seeing
1. anyone with babies, especially boys and especially boys P's age
2. Seeing happy couples
3. going to family parties. ( I have a relatively large family and we do family gatherings and I hated going)

Those were the main things. Then as you see them more and more and more your heart gets a little harder and little more hard.

After meeting my husband C and marrying him then getting pregnant on our honeymoon it was pretty CRAZY! I was not a happy camper about it. I felt that shame and guilt again even though I was married. It was ALOT of mixed feelings I felt bad about. Here is was going to have a baby with my husband and I didn't like telling people I was prego, I didn't like people asking me about it and I didn't want to talk about it. THANK GOODNESS I had a husband that was willing to be the best cheerleader ever. He was SO excited he couldn't contain himself. That helped me get excited but I still went to the Dr's and kinda wanted to look around to see if everyone was married or was in my shoes years ago.

I am blessed it gave me a perspective that I will really never be able to replicate. That is a positive.

So those were my first emotions. It was needless lonely and hard. It was a challenge I didn't expect.

I also had the toll of having a INSANE step daughter that was in her TERRIBLE TWOS and that was hopeless too. (she is now SO much better and really quite the angel but at the time I thought what were we thinking)

I don't regret having little E but it was hard going through such MIXED emotions.

Then came the challenge of preparing to be a mom. I don't remember exactly when this happened but it was also really quite an emotional challenge internally. I didn't really want to talk about it but I was BEYOND a protective mother but then what if he was born and I wasn't? I kept asking C my hubs about this and he kept telling me that he went through the same emotions with his daughter but he was right there to cheer me on hard core.

1. how was I going to breastfeed- I knew I wanted to but wow.
2. how were we going to wake through the night, I loved sleep
3. what about my relationship with my hubs, was that going to change how could we prevent that
4. what if I felt an emotional disconnect?

I never thought of post partum depression. I thought, if I could make it through placing a baby, I could make it through ANYTHING.

I got so much advice about being prego which cracks me up still because not many people know that I placed a baby.

The world really helped prepare me. Stanger's or acquaintances started asking me things. Baby room, this that. People asking oh is it your first baby.

Okay- one quick birth mom rant. I feel like "birth moms" are discredited because they didn't raise the baby. Yet all the emotions to scientifically connect you to the baby is there but you don't have that sweet baby to kiss, feed, change, hold.. I wonder how moms that loose (baby dies) their babies feel about this. are they not moms because they lost their baby? Maybe I am the only birth mom that feels like this.. who knows.

One other thing is round two is COMPLETELY different then round one. Having the baby, different. Emotions, different. I think that is for everyone having their second baby but

This is all that I want to write for now.