How do I deal with the grief of not being able to get pregnant?

Infertility Support

I know World Childless Week was last week

Hopefully, you heard my chat with Yvonne Jon and I'm continuing to talk a bit more on this topic as it certainly needs to be better understood by wider society. My two guests in this episode as they both bring two fascinating perspectives and have both written books bringing together a multitude of women's voices.

Lois Tonkin

My second guest Lois Tonkin talked about her new book "Motherhood Missed: Stories of loss and living from circumstantially childless women" and her work as a bereavement counselor. Lois trained as a teacher, counselor, and researcher. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. In working with grief issues her focus is a psychosocial approach that considers both an individual's personal responses to their life circumstances, and the social conditions that underlie them.

During our chat, Lois explained how people often feel it isn’t really grief when dealing with childlessness and she spoke to many women who felt like they were grieving but they weren’t sure they could call it that. As a result, women weren’t accessing support or being gentle with themselves. Lois gives a fascinating insight into her work and the conversations she has had with the women she has been helping.

Find out more about Lois here and you can follow her on Twitter