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Parenting After Infertility

How Infertility Can Change the Way You Parent

By Jacqueline Bodnar

With more than six billion people on the planet you can't help but think that having babies is a very easy process. But for many people that isn't so, and they need to work a little harder to get pregnant or become a parent.

For anyone who has experienced infertility, you know just how extremely painful a situation it can be. Not knowing if you will ever be able to have a child of your own can leave you feeling devastated and it changes who you are and how you see things. Struggling through infertility especially changes how you view the entire realm of parenthood, once you finally get to become a parent.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that around 6.1 million Americans experience infertility each year. Infertility is defined as a couple having unprotected intercourse for one year without conceiving. Many would agree that the emotional pain the situation causes is far more grueling than any procedure a doctor can perform. For anyone who's been through infertility, you know firsthand what an emotional roller coaster ride it can be. Experiencing the condition causes a great stress that changes many of your views about life.

"It's not just a single event but a series of events and disappointments and intrusive procedures that stretch out over time and bleed over into different contexts," says Dr. Sara Rosenquist, a licensed practicing psychologist in Chapel Hill, N.C. The anguish conjured up from infertility ends up affecting every aspect of a person's life. Infertility stresses a relationship because of all the emotions from monthly ups and downs and feeling powerless to remedy the situation.

Experiencing infertility is a life-altering experience, regardless of how long you experience it. Once you get the opportunity to become a parent you tend to see parenthood in a totally new way. If you have never experienced the condition it's hard to imagine the many ways that you see parenting differently once you get pregnant or have your child.

Want to see more?

• When Dreams Come True: Pregnancy After Infertility
• Infertile No More: Making the Transition from Infertility to Pregnancy
• Ready, Set, Mother: Making Changes and Choices
• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!