9 Comments
Jan 26, 2021Liked by Mandy Len Catron

This essay is SO GOOD. I can relate to it in many ways. Thank you, Mandy, for taking the time and for taking the risk of being vulnerable and honest.

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Jan 26, 2021Liked by Mandy Len Catron

Hi Mandy, I took your memoir class at UBC many moons ago and love your work. I personally dealt with secondary infertility for a few years, but I am very fortunate that we managed to have 2 kids. I really relate with your post, and I am sorry that you are dealing with this and it is turning out this way. I wondered if you had heard of a friend's graphic novel about her grueling journey to motherhood - its messy, raw and very intimate - not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought I would pass it along. Your keen eye on this is really quite satisfying to read - I will check out the alternatives to the nuclear family link suggested. Family life and motherhood are indeed very fraught even when they are hard won. https://www.cataloguebabynovel.com/

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Jan 26, 2021Liked by Mandy Len Catron

Infertility (and early motherhood ) brought about so much angst but the isolation was the very worst bit. I’ve been there and I hope that one day, this feeling is a distant memory. Best wishes.

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Thank you so much for this essay, Mandy. I can't imagine the challenge of living through infertility, and then the added difficulty of writing about it. And yet I feel grateful to you for having shared here. As a stay-at-home dad, I feel like I'm slowly moving from thinking mainly about my challenges in a self-absorbed way, to trying to think outward, about the childcare challenges put upon women for ages, and yet your essay showed me that I often forget what a damn lucky turn of biology it was that my wife and I were able to have kids by birth in the first place. That silence around reproduction is still so thick. Anyway, thank you again.

All my best from Chicago,

J.

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I can relate to this on so many levels, thank you for being vulnerable, it's hard! I have been thinking a lot about how to live outside the box with a like-minded community of folks who are kind and thoughtful but making a leap is scary, and in the midst of a pandemic, it seems near impossible.

I'm really glad I stumbled upon your project. I look forward to reading your newsletters.

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