Conceiving People

Each year, tens of thousands of children are conceived with donated gametes (sperm or eggs). By some estimates, there are over one million donor-conceived people in the United States and, of course, many more the world over. Some know they are donor-conceived. Some do not. Some know the identity of their donors. Others never will. Questions about what donor-conceived people should know about their genetic progenitors are hugely significant for literally millions of people, including donor-conceived people, their parents, and donors. But the practice of gamete donation also provides a vivid occasion for thinking about questions that matter to everyone. What is the value of knowing who your genetic progenitors are? How are our identities bound up with knowing where we come from? What obligations do parents have to their children? And what makes someone a parent in the first place? In Conceiving People: Identity, Genetics and Gamete Donation, Daniel Groll argues that people who plan to create a child with donated gametes should choose a donor whose identity will be made available to the resulting child. This is not, Groll argues, because having genetic knowledge is fundamentally important. Rather, it is because donor-conceived people are likely to develop a significant interest in having genetic knowledge and parents must help satisfy their children's significant interests. In other words, because a donor-conceived person is likely to care about having genetic knowledge, their parents should care too.

The first comprehensive book that offers invaluable step-by-step advice for families with donor-conceived children. Wendy Kramer, founder and director of the Donor Sibling Registry, and Naomi Cahn, family and reproductive law professor, have compiled a comprehensive and thorough guide for the growing community of families with donor-conceived children. Kramer and Cahn believe that all donor-conceived children’s desire to know their genetic family must be honored, and in Finding Our Families, they offer advice on how to foster healthy relationships within immediate families and their larger donor family networks based on openness and acceptance. With honesty and compassion, the authors offer thoughtful strategies and inspirational stories to help parents answer their own, and their children’s, questions and concerns that will surely arise, including: How to support your children’s curiosity and desire to know about their ancestry and genetic and medical background. How to help children integrate their birth story into a healthy self-image. How to help your children search for their donor or half siblings if and when they express interest in doing so. Finding Our Families opens up the lives of donor-conceived people who may be coping with uncertainty, thriving despite it, and finding novel ways to connect in this uncharted territory as they navigate the challenges and rewards of the world of donor conception.

New York Times bestselling author Nancy Redd’s visual guide to pregnancy and all the bizarre, hilarious, and often unanticipated changes a woman’s body can go through. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS COULD HAPPEN?!— This is not the thought you want to be having when you’re frantically Googling whether your pregnancy symptom is normal or an emergency. Just when you thought there could never be another pregnancy book, Pregnancy, OMG! comes along, and you realize how much the current market is missing. Did you know that: your nose can change size and shape? Your fingernails, far from growing long and strong, can crack or fall off? You can completely (temporarily) lose your sense of smell? That 5% of women grow a third boob? More seriously, that 25-50% percent of the partners of women with postpartum depression develop it themselves, or that 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage? This is a one-stop guide to every change a woman’s body can go through while pregnant, and is unlike anything for expecting parents on the market: it is illustrated by full-color photographs of a diverse set of real pregnant women of all shapes, sizes and ages. Featuring Nancy Redd’s trademark warmth, humor, and candor, and partnered with the advice and vetting of medical experts, this book tackles embarrassing, confusing, and less-widely discussed issues that many pregnant women face while offering practical tips and techniques to ease even the strangest problems, helping to dispel panic and shame, and providing women the resources they need for a healthy pregnancy.

In this intimate national bestselling memoir, actress and musician Jamie Lynn Spears opens up for the first time, telling her unfiltered story on her own terms. You’ve read the headlines, but you don’t know Jamie Lynn Spears. The world first met Jamie Lynn as a child star, when it was her job to perform, both on set and for the press. She spent years escaping into different characters—on All That, Zoey 101, and even in the role as Britney’s kid sister. But as she grew up, faced a teen pregnancy, raised her daughter on her own, pursued a career, and learned to stand on her own two feet, the real Jamie Lynn started to take center stage - a raw, blemished, and imperfect woman, standing in her own power. Despite growing up in one of America's most tabloid-famous families, Jamie Lynn has never told her story in her own words. In Things I Should Have Said, she talks frankly about the highs and lows, sharing what it was like traveling the world as a kid, how she moved into acting and performing herself, what life as a child star took from her, and the life-changing reality of becoming a teen mom. She talks about how she finally found love and how the mistakes she has made have taught her more than anything else. She also shares vulnerably about how the ATV accident that nearly took her daughter's life brought her back to her faith and caused her to reevaluate and redirect her life. Frank, courageous, and inspiring, Things I Should Have Said is a portrait of a wife, momma, sister, daughter, actress, and musician doing the best she could to show up for herself and teach her daughters to have the courage to love every part of themselves, too.

Conceiving Persons is an international exploration of the symbolism of reproduction. The emphasis is on the core metaphors and practices of human sexual and social reproduction in their personal, societal, and cosmological contexts. The roles of a range of substances-blood, semen, milk, and food-and their specific parts in the creation of the character of fetus and infant are assessed. Particular attention is paid to the construction of gender and its implications. Case studies are drawn from European peasant societies and from communities in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

A perfect gift for any parent who has struggled on their journey to have a baby, Million Dollar Listing star Emilia Bechrakis Serhant's debut picture book poignantly explores her own difficulty conceiving and her life-changing experiences with IVF. I swam through the deepest ocean. I climbed the tallest mountain. Finding you was a journey. And meeting you was my greatest joy. In this picture book, illustrated by the #1 New York Times bestselling artist of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, families of different shapes, colors, and sizes must cross deserts, navigate rough seasons, and climb mountains--all to find their miracle babies. Emilia's story reminds us that, despite the challenges and complications often thrown our way, hope will always prevail. To the Moon and Back for You combines a timeless feel with a timely subject, and is poised to become a modern classic for years to come.

"If you are pregnant, or are planning to become pregnant, this guide is for you! Having a baby can be a wonderful experience, but it can also be a time of uncertainty. Many parents have questions and concerns as they face all the changes that pregnancy brings. With advice coming from everyone, it's tough to know who to listen to. That's why having accurate information is so important! This guide will help you to make good decisions about how to take care of yourself before, during and after your pregnancy"--Page 1.

By all indicators, the reproductive health of Americans has been deteriorating since 1980. Our nation is troubled by rates of teen pregnancies and newborn deaths that are worse than almost all others in the Western world. Science and Babies is a straightforward presentation of the major reproductive issues we face that suggests answers for the public. The book discusses how the clash of opinions on sex and family planning prevents us from making a national commitment to reproductive health; why people in the United States have fewer contraceptive choices than those in many other countries; what we need to do to improve social and medical services for teens and people living in poverty; how couples should "shop" for a fertility service and make consumer-wise decisions; and what we can expect in the futureâ€"featuring interesting accounts of potential scientific advances.