Barren

An Exploration of the Journey to Parenthood

Tasha Page, Judy LeBlanc

• Publisher: Demeter Press
• eBook ISBN:
  9781772585704
• Year: 2025

Barren invites the reader to inhabit the world of infertility as experienced by those who live in it. Theirs is not the typical story of a predictable timeline of planned pregnancy and a healthy full-term pregnancy leading to the birth of a healthy baby. This normative birth narrative discounts the reality of one in four birthing persons who experience pregnancy loss and one in six with fertility challenges. Failing to include these stories in pregnancy and birth discourse furthers the stigma of infertility, causes isolation, and can contribute to poor mental health outcomes. Barren amplifies the voices of those who' ve experienced barriers to fertility including high-risk pregnancy and pregnancy loss. These folks have accessed assisted reproductive technology and/or surrogacy, have chosen adoption or are child free, not by choice. The contributors to Barren tell their story through personal essay, academic research, poetry and visual art. Despite the heartbreak of infertility, they demonstrate resistance, resilience and empowerment on their path to parenthood.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. Resistance
• Chapter 1. I Don’t Know How to Start
• Chapter 2. This Was a Desired Pregnancy
• Chapter 3. I Am the Mother, Not the Other
• Chapter 4. Infertile Platitudes of Embodied Emptiness
• Chapter 5. Reading the Future: On Teaching The Handmaid’s Tale While Undergoing IVF1
• Chapter 6. Navigating Maternal Regret in the Context of Infertility: Intersectional and Intergenerational Considerations
• II. Resilience
• Chapter 7. Holding Guilt and Hope: A Journey of Pregnancy and Loss with Cancer
• Chapter 8. My Brain, My Choice: Navigating Motherhood and Assisted Reproduction with Cancer
• Chapter 9. Breaking Dormancy
• Chapter 10. Cry of Love
• Chapter 11. Patterns of Belonging
• III. Empowerment
• Chapter 12. Building Strength through Connection: Finding Support in My Journey with Infertility
• Chapter 13. Navigating against the Current: Pam and Lise’s Journey
• Chapter 14. The Shield
• Chapter 15. Navigating Postpartum Anxiety after Pregnancy Loss and Secondary Infertility
• Chapter 16. Journey Into the In-Between: Psychedelics and Pregnancy Loss
• Chapter 17. “Everyone’s Got Their Own Story and That’s Mine”: A Poetic Presentation of Women’s Counselling Experiences, as Part of Fertility Treatment in the United Kingdom
• Chapter 18. (In)Fertile Creations: Artist Reflections on Infertility, Creativity, and Mental Health
• Notes on Contributors
• Deepest appreciation to Demeter’s monthly Donors