Archive for the ‘Infertility In The Movies etc.’ Category
August 19, 2010 | By: Liz | Filed under: Current Affairs,Egg Donation,Faith and Infertility,In the News,Infertility In The Movies etc.,Peace to Parenthood,Personal Musings,The Journey to Parenthood,Thinking Out Loud,Uncategorized,visualization
Everyone knows that I am fan of Jennifer’s. I actually probably wouldn’t be married to my DH if it wasn’t for some advice her mom gave me a long time ago. But seriously, Jennifer is an extraordinary woman in all respects, and from my perspective even more so for the way she is approaching her quest to be a mom.
At 41, most of know that Jennifer is likely to be facing some fertility issues (although with her health conscious lifestyle and yoga-bod maybe she’s found the way to turn back time, she sure looks it anyway!). While most of us would be doing a little freak-out dance now, and panicking about the ticking time bomb that are our ovaries, Ms. Aniston seems anything but panicked. In fact, she seems rather Zen about it all. And that is exactly my point and what inspires me.
First, the woman KNOWS she is going to be a mom. One way or another the woman has total and complete faith that she will become a mom. Rather than spiraling into depression (as I did and many of us do), Jennifer has seemed to have found a way to let go and TRUST. This is, I think, the gateway to success.
I really truly believe that it is when you completely accept and embrace the concept that you will be a mother, no matter what and no matter how (IUI, IVF, IVF donor egg, gestational surrogacy, adoption, whatever is your path), that fertility treatments have the highest success rates. Study after study shows that the mind-body connection cannot and should not be ignored. Women who are able to be in the place that Jennifer Aniston seems to be in, are the women who are more likely to succeed with fertility treatments. It’s fact not fiction. I know — as does JA — that she’s got an edge on success that I wish more of my friends and clients had: The inner-knowingness of the inevitability of their impending state of motherhood.
Another thing that I think sets her apart from many of us (and I include myself in this group when I was in the first 4 or 5 years of treatment), is that by all media accounts, she seems fairly open to many different paths to parenthood. I am not privy to her conversations with her BFF’s but I am guessing that there isn’t much she isn’t considering about how she’s going to become a mom. That too puts her on the fast track to “mommydom”. Not all of us can be as enlightened and confident as she is, and I am not saying that she doesn’t have her moments of . . . doubt . . . but I really think that the confidence and openness that Jennifer Aniston is talking about whenever she is interviewed about becoming a mom is something that tells me it ain’t gonna be long before she’s announcing the arrival or the impending arrival of a little baby Aniston.
And for what its worth, I think she’s a fantastic role model for every woman, single or married, over the age of 35 who’s trying to become a mom.
ASSUME IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN, AND IT WILL.
p.s. and when you can’t totally assume it will happen, fake it, fake it until you make-it . . . because that’s another sure fire way to get your mommy-Zen fire burning.
Tags: actresses, adoption, biological clock, Egg Donation, hollywood, hope, infertility, Inspiration, intent, movies, Peace to Parenthood, visualization
February 22, 2010 | By: Liz | Filed under: Check This Out,Infertility In The Movies etc.
Okay, Jennifer Aniston and Johnny Depp do not star in this film but it was posted on a friend’s FB page and I watched the trailer. And I think you should too. I want to watch the entire movie . . . but more importantly, as I continue on my review of movies from Hollywood with an infertility theme (latest was Julie and Julia) I really think that someone other than a physician with connections needs to do a movie on this. Or a television show. Something. not to get on my soapbox too many times but seriously, 12 million Americans have infertility. You don’t think some screenwriter out there could come up with a realistic screenplay for a movie on infertility????? Or hey, what about reality tv? We have 16 and pregnant, the duggars, a baby story, stories of adoptees reuniting with their birth families, survivor, an adoption story, why on god’s green earth don’t we have a tv show documenting what we go through to become parents???????
In the meantime, watch this. It’s worth it. Infertility Movie
Tags: hollywood, infertility, movies, youtube
February 22, 2010 | By: Liz | Filed under: Current Affairs,Infertility In The Movies etc.,Thinking Out Loud
okay well maybe not very much. She’s tall, lanky and gorgeous and I am petite, voluptuous and on a good day with a ton of make-up and a professional blow-out some might say I am pretty. LOL! But seriously folks, I do have a bit in common with the queen of the tear-me-up ballad. And that is, we both tried to conceive our sons at the same time (okay, so mine took 7 IVF attemps, 5 miscarriages and an adoption and she only need ONE attempt at IVF), and we both want another baby. Here’s where the comparison gets more real. She’s now unfortunately and horribly had a bunch of miscarriages (I am currently counting 10 but my therapist says I shouldn’t count . . . um yeah right!), and is racing the clock to have another baby, and is rapidly approaching the number if IVF cycles I gutted my way through. Even more in common, can it be? Yes indeed! We both sleep with our 7 year old sons in our bed (and don’t even TRY to flame me on this, I believe in the family bed and I WILL take down any posts that disrespect anyone’s style of doing anything on this blog), and we both relish the days we have left with our little boys being small enough and young enough to snuggle with. Okay, so I am not claiming that I am her evil twin double . . . but I know how she feels and I commend her for going public on the cover of People and I wish her all the success in the world.
And I wish me all the success in the world too. But that is the subject of another blog. (would someone please tell me where the emoticons are in WordPress???).
Tags: biological clock, Celine Dion, infertility, IVF, miscarriage
April 14, 2009 | By: Liz | Filed under: Current Affairs,Infertility In The Movies etc.
I want to express my profound appreciation and delight to see that someone in Hollywood actually admitted to suffering through infertility and going so far as to give an interview in People Magazine about it. Even better, while she acknowledged that people have a right to privacy (especially during such a profoundly challenging time in their lives) that: “I only want to say we might not have as much time as think we have [to get pregnant].”
Three cheers to George Lopez star Constance Marie for her honesty about her struggle to conceive her beautiful baby girl and the impact age can have on infertility!
And welcome to little Luna Marie. You have an awesome Mom, and I know you will grow up to be an incredible human being with a mother as brave, centered, and caring as Constance Marie. Congratulations to the Happy Family!
Now I am off to write a letter to People’s editors!!
April 3, 2009 | By: Liz | Filed under: Check This Out,Infertility In The Movies etc.
So, further to our task here at the Stork Lawyer HQ, I watched another movie (surprisingly available for sale at Wal-Mart) on infertility and entitled Miss. Conceivability starring Heather Graham.
A british film, or at least filmed in the UK and based on a character living in London, the film’s heroine is in her early thirties (at the oldest, although her age is not addressed in the film unless I missed it) and is in a relationship that is struggling. On top of the bad relationship she has decided that she wants to have a baby. While her boyfriend is off filming a movie, she learns from a fertility specialist that she has “only one egg left.”
Sorry, did you miss my eyes rolling back in my head? She has ONE EGG left. PULEASE. Why can’t these writers at least do some research?????
The story next revolves around her desparate attempt to get pregnant (without her boyfriend, not that I really cared) in her next and final ovulatory cycle. Ha! No mention of using medical assistance like an IUI if this in fact her final attempt forever and ever. She’s sent home with instructions to have lots of sex (or something equally offensive given her plight).
The film’s one redeeming quality is that it now gets somewhat funny . . . the lengths she will go to in order to get pregnant and the trials and tribulations of trying to interview potential sperm donors to have sex with and/or to give her a sample is handled rather well. I did chuckle a few times. Her friends are trying to help as well, and of course her best male gay friend is put up to the task (pardon the pun, yikes!) of trying to help her get pregnant. I like silly things so this part of the film worked for me. It was, however, sadly the only part of the film I enjoyed.
Alas, nothing works out and she misses her final opportunity at getting pregnant. Her boyfirend returns home, she reveals what she has been through, they realize they are meant to be together and voila a few months later she is of course PREGNANT on her own, without assistance, and quite by accident it would seem.
I hate movies like this. I hate the “just relax” and you’ll get pregnant theme of this movie. I hate the lack of medical credibility.
I want to watch a movie that deals with this topic fairly. I want to watch something REALISTIC. Hey, there are reality shows about every other topic on the face of the earth from little people to families aith 18 children . . . adoption stories . . . baby stories . . . but no infertility stories. Why is that?
This movie gets my official thumbs down and a definite do NOT watch it if you’re infertile or know someone who is.
TGIF!
Liz
