NEW(s) and Reviews 17th July 2018

This week I have another two brilliant new initiatives to share with you in this week’s New(s) and Reviews: there is SO much going on in our community it is absolutely BUZZING with activity.

New(s) and Reviews #1

Childless Not By Choice Ribbon: Way back when I started this blog 16 days ago I mentioned that I came up with the word “CANBACE” after Brandi Lytle and I had been bouncing ideas around regarding having an awareness ribbon. Well, not only is Brandi creating the “Childless Not By Choice Awareness Ribbon” in all its glory, she chosen a truly inspirational colour which is so pertinent for our community. I couldn’t believe how a colour could be so relevant to my situation or how it could convey so much in terms of the struggles of our community whilst being inspiring about moving forward. When she has confirmed the final design I will share it here. In the meantime you can read about the research that Brandi did before choosing the colour on her blog at “Not So Mommy …”.

At present I can’t give you any more details about exactly when the first associated CANBACE Day is going to be. However, it will be either late April or early May next year. Brandi and I will be announcing the details closer to the time. What I can tell you is that we have got SOOOOOO many ideas for raising awareness and how members of the Canbace/CNCB community can become involved. So many in fact that Brandi and I are dealing with sleep deprivation due to ideas buzzing across the Atlantic at all hours of the day and night. In the meantime, please help spread the word about the CANBACE and the “Childless Not By Choice Awareness Ribbon”. I, for one, will be updating my social media profile photos to include the ribbon. I shall also be using it on the social media images that I will be sharing over the coming weeks and months. Every little helps in terms of raising awareness and helping people recognise the significance of our new colour!

New(s) and Reviews #2

Childless Voices becomes a regular conversation: Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the last week or so, you are probably aware that IVF turns 40 later this month. Following a suggestion by Jody Day (founder of Gateway Women amongst other things) and Lesley Payne (author of Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness) that we should “do something” to acknowledge this milestone a group of us got together on Zoom to record our thoughts. The result was so brilliant that we all agreed that we should make it a regular “gathering of the minds” and we’ve started to collate an awesome range of subjects to discuss including:

• The Childless Menopause
• Ageing without children
• The mental impact of being childless not by choice
• Raising awareness in the rest of the world
• Childless men
• The impact on relationships – romantic and others
• What helps us to heal
• The treatment of infertility and childlessness in the media

Judging by how much we all had to say about “IVF is 40” these are set to be lively and thought-provoking discussions. Obviously as each one becomes available I will be sharing here. In the meantime, here’s the currently one:

Several of the people involved in the call have also written blogs that you might find interesting.

Jody Day asks where are the childless voices for whom IVF wasn’t a success?

Pamela Tsigdinos looks at the untold stories and some of the facts behind the IVF industry

Lesley Payne writes about how support has changed and why speaking out is important

Sarah Roberts looks at how far we still have to go in terms of awareness and understanding

Loribeth reflects on Louis Brown’s 40^th birthday and her own personal experience of IVF

Berenice Smith, of Walk in our shoes, couldn’t make it to the call due to a thunderstorm: however, she’s recorded her own experiences here.

I shall be writing my personal thoughts and experiences about IVF in next week’s “Beautiful Perspectives” on the 25^th July, which is Louise Brown’s actual birthday. There’s also going to be some exciting announcements in next week’s New(s) and Reviews: it really is all going on at the moment!

In CANBACE friendship!

If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about so if you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website please let me know and I will keep your words private.