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Friday, September 24, 2010

no longer keeping mum?

for a variety of reasons, i have kept mum (sorry, bad pun) about our IF situation. shame is one of them and i don't really want to get into that in this post, simply for lack of time. another compelling reason is that, in our faith-based community, we would be judged like crazy for having done IVF. another, quite frankly, is that i don't want to be asked about it every two seconds or to be considered the token IVF spokesperson (i don't know any real-life friends or family members who've needed IVF).

however, the trend in the IF blogosphere lately has been to 'come out'(for lack of a better term).

i've been trying, for a few weeks now, to write a commentary on this trend but i haven't been able to get around to it. however, i wanted to share the links on this topic that caught my interest (sadly, this blog appears to have been deleted):

I AM THE FACE movement

What IF?: A portrait of infertility (this is a moving video)

This Woman has a Secret

people with infertility are being IGNORED (a message from RESOLVE)

what we have here is a failure to communicate (great last sentence)

i won't stay silent forever. to me, this is Ninja's story now. when she is old enough, i will tell her everything. she can choose to keep mum or to tell. by then, i will be old enough that perhaps people's opinions won't matter so much to me anymore.

4 comments:

Amy said...

I didn't keep mum...most people know I did IVF. And I did become the fertility spokesperson at work: several women have come to me and asked about fertility issues. I'd like to think I helped them in some small way.
I'm not ashamed, but I know a lot of IF people are and I hope you and they can someday reach a point where you don't feel that way. None of you did anything wrong.

Anyway, I totally respect your (and any other infertile's) right to keep silent. I'm not saying you should shout it from the hilltops. If I had your family community, I'd keep quiet too---who needs to hear a lot of ignorant shit from people who are supposed to care about you?

Just want to reiterate that a biological problem is beyond our control: it sucks, but it's not your fault and you don't need to be ashamed.

Victoria said...

I guess it's a decision that has to be made when you're truly comfortable. In your community, it would probably be added stress for you and Ninja. To my family, what I'm doing (IVF) is weird. I haven't told my mom about the DE but I will when it works.

Mrs. X said...

Well said!

And thank so much for posting the link from my blog.

I look forward to hearing more from you - I too am now on the other side of infertility with a child and it has definitely shaped my perspective.

Brie said...

My brother and sister (twins) were IVF babies and mom told them when they were 14 and one ( the boy) was shocked and my sister thought it was sooo cool. she nicknamed herself petrie and totally loved it! Im so glad your going to make it her story and let her get excited about her birth!