Infertility Doesn't Care About Ethnicity

Are you finding it challenging to become a mother when other women seem to achieve this quickly and easily? Was it a shock for you? Are these emotions familiar - anger, sadness, shame, envy, grief, anxiety, depression, and loneliness?

When you are a Black, Asian, Indian or other ethnic woman, your immediate thought is that it must only be you because no-one else is talking about infertility or miscarriage. Or if they are, there's a lot of shaming and blaming going on.

Please know that you are not alone and that it's not your fault.

Finding other women who are like you and who know how you are feeling may have seemed impossible, until now. In Infertility Doesn't Care About Ethnicity, you'll find invaluable support - because dealing with infertility, fertility treatment, miscarriage, stillbirth, donor conception, surrogacy or living childfree after infertility, is anything but easy. All of these are taboo subjects in many cultures around the world, which leaves women feeling very isolated and lonely.

Infertility Doesn't Care About Ethnicity is not a book that cures infertility, nor gives medical advice or guarantees that IVF will work. All the women involved in this book share the emotional realities of their personal struggle. Most of them aren't writers - their stories are in their own words with phrasing authentic to their culture, which will be recognizable if you're from that community. Situations they share haven't been embellished to shock you - they happened. They understand like no-one else does, what you are going through, and they know that reading their words will bring you comfort, validation and possibly hope; that however your future turns out, you too will be okay.

Their stories reveal:

that IVF is not one-hundred per cent successful

that after a woman has a miscarriage there are no guarantees that she'll get pregnant the next time and give birth to her baby

that when her baby is stillborn, she won't ever 'get over it'

that she is a mother regardless as to how her child was conceived, and

that being childfree after infertility takes immense strength and courage.

All of us hope that this book helps to open the narrative for all ethnic women around the globe, and that it will be a survival guide for women who are finding it a challenge to conceive. We also want it to be an excellent resource to people who haven't experienced this struggle, especially your family and friends, healthcare professionals; doctors, nurses, midwives, sonographers, embryologists and receptionists, as well as those practicing alternative therapies, counsellors, coaches and therapists. Religious and community leaders can also offer much better support for these very valuable members of their organizations by understanding the trauma a...