Family Building Stories
Get real-life perspectives from our community, highlighting the many different paths a fertility and family building journey can take.
Karalyn’s Journey: YOU know when your family is complete.
This episode features Karalyn Connolly, a longtime New Englander, parent of three, and professional in the fertility space. Over the course of the conversation, Karalyn recounts the unexpected challenge of facing unexplained secondary infertility after her...
Dr. Crawford’s Journey: “I’m a Physician, But I’m a Person First”
In this episode, we welcome Dr. Natalie Crawford, a board-certified OB/GYN and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) specialist who practices in Austin, Texas, and who many will recognize as being one of the most well-known fertility doctors on...
Carrie’s Journey: Polypectomy, Peer Support, and Paying for IVF
In this episode we welcome Carrie Van Steen, a parent through IVF and professional in the fertility field. Carrie details her personal family building journey, which began more than two decades ago and was not the straightforward path she had always...
Dr. Durant’s Journey: “I became my own case study”
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Fallon Durant, a Laboratory Supervisor in the embryology lab at Boston IVF. Dr. Durant shares the seven-year journey that she and her husband endured while trying to grow their family, a path marked by recurrent pregnancy...
Rachel’s Journey: Knitting Him Into Existence
This episode features a conversation with Rachel Wilson, a therapist, yoga and meditation instructor, coach, and most recently, a postpartum doula and intended parent support coach. Rachel shares the difficult journey she and her husband undertook to welcome...
Bonding with your Unborn Child during Surrogacy
By Rachel Wilson For someone carrying her own child, developing a bond with them may seem intuitive: she feels them kicking, she talks to them in the middle of the night, she sees them on ultrasound scans and hears their heartbeat. For those of us who can’t...
Kristin’s Journey: Becoming the IVF “Fairy God-Sister”
In this episode we welcome Kristin Dillensnyder to discuss her family building journey and her subsequent work in the fertility space. Kristin, a former military spouse now living in South Carolina, navigated the complicated, messy, and lonely process of IVF...
Kerri’s Journey: The gap between what’s offered and what we need
This episode features Kerri Bicskei, an active duty military spouse, psychotherapist, and founder of the nonprofit organization Mindful Warrior Alliance. Kerri shares her ongoing family building journey, taking both holistic and Western medical approaches...
Elizabeth & Maria’s Journeys: The Art of Healing
In our latest episode, we welcome Maria and Elizabeth, the co-founders and co-directors of The ART of Infertility, to share their personal experiences with infertility and their collaborative advocacy work. Though their individual family building journeys...
It’s about damn time.
by Kallie Chausse I am honored to have known my husband, Matt, my entire life, he was the boy next door when I was growing up. It wasn't until my early 20s that we finally got together. I remember when the word finally had made its way around that we had...
Becca’s Journey: “Leave all your assumptions at the door.”
In this episode, we speak with Becca Levin Nayak, an attorney specializing in adoption and assisted reproduction in Pennsylvania. Becca shares her own family building journey, begun with her ex-wife, where the couple navigated donor conception. The process...
Courtney’s Journey: Liberating Yourself from Uterine Shame
On this episode, we welcome Courtney, a current PhD student at the Fletcher School of Tufts to talk about her ongoing reproductive health journey. Her long medical path, which began with life-threatening blood clots (DVT and pulmonary embolism) at age 17,...