- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 5
-
Sparkle (0)
This Saturday kicks off National Infertility Awareness Week, a week that moved this year from the fall to right before Mother's Day. The move was a smart one, enabling those struggling with the upcoming parent-centered holidays in America to gain support. NIAW formally runs from April 25--May 2, though events and online activities are stretching all the way to Mother's Day.
Resolve, the national infertility association, is at the helm of NIAW and they posted a list of seven things people can do in seven days to help themselves and others in regards to infertility.
My focus this year is the seventh item on the list: support. People may not know, but while national Resolve runs a helpline, the local Resolve groups offer face-to-face support meetings that center on a specific path out of infertility. They also keep a list of therapists in the area that cater towards those experiencing infertility. While any therapist has training to help with a range of situations, having someone well-versed in infertility, loss, and adoption makes a huge difference.
That idea of not having to give the backstory and explain treatments to an infertility therapist is also why many turn to support online. There are bulletin boards on Resolve as well as IVF Connections if you want to connect with others in the same boat.
NIAW is the perfect week to start reading blogs that are similar to your story. It's also a good time to start writing one and adding yourself to the blogroll so others can find your new space. Rachel wrote an article about starting your own infertility-related blog. BlogHer has its own infertility group and all are welcome to join.
Despite the "N", the awareness week isn't just national. In Canada, The Hardest Quest wrote about the Pram Push for IVF Funding that will be happening on Mother's Day in Toronto. She states: "At 10 a.m. on Mother's Day, the group Conceivable Dreams (the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for IVF Coalition) is holding a march and rally to raise awareness about infertility in Ontario. The event is called 'Pram Push for IVF Funding' and makes for a great lead-in event to kick off Canadian Infertilty Awareness Week."
I think the reason it's important to have an awareness week is summarized in this post by Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed. She posted about NIAW on her Facebook page and then removed it, not ready to admit her infertility to people she hasn't seen since kindergarten. She then replaced it when she "found out someone from high school messages me to tell me they are in the same boat. If my voice can give courage and support to others, than it's super important for me to speak out."
And that's why people should participate in NIAW. Not only for themselves, but for others as well.
What are you doing to spread awareness or gather support during NIAW?
Melissa is the author of the infertility and pregnancy loss blog, Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters. She keeps a categorized blogroll of 1700 infertility blogs and writes the daily Lost and Found and Connections Abound, a news source for the infertility blogosphere. Her infertility book, Navigating the Land of If, is forthcoming from Seal Press in May 2009.
