Conception Chronicles: The Uncensored Truth about Sex, Love and Marriage when You're Trying to Get Pregnant »

After battling infertility for three years, Patty Doyle Debano just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She lives in Connecticut with her husband Scott and their slightly overweight golden retriever.

Courtney Edgerton Menzel is the mother of a daughter, five and a son, three. She lives in Chicago with her husband Dan and manages to balance the demands of motherhood and a full time career - thanks to a variety of take-out menus.

Shelly Dicken Sutphen is the mother of a "spirited" three year old daughter. She lives in San Diego with her husband Bruce and surprisingly has the energy to try for number two.

When we first started down the baby-making path, we thought we'd be pregnant in no time. We'd just toss out our birth control pills and before we knew it, we'd be rocking our little one to sleep. Little did we know what was in store for us, or the energy it would take to face all of the crazy, unpredictable and (sometimes) irrational emotions we felt along the way. Neither did our husbands. Sound familiar?

• If your idea of foreplay is screaming, "I'm ovulating; it's time!!!" to your oblivious husband...


• If your ovulation schedule is ruling your life and every trip to the drug store includes a bulk purchase of pregnancy sticks...


• If you're running out of answers to the chronic questioning from the pregnancy paparazzi about your plans for parenthood ...

Then this is the book for you. Whether it's been three months or three years since you've been trying, the more complicated and overwhelming the process becomes.

The Conception Chronicles shares candid humor, hold-nothing-back banter and practical advice on everything that goes along with trying to start a family: from dealing with your fertile friends to the battery of tests you may have to face; from surviving "sex on demand" to navigating the ins and outs of high-tech fertility treatments. This book will guide you through the emotional journey to motherhood, offering compassion and laughter like only your best girlfriends can. And we promise you'll never hear us say, "Relax and you'll be pregnant in no time."

Library Journal

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, infertility affects 6.1 million American women and their partners. Consequently, it is good news that there are two excellent new books addressing this topic, both written by individuals who have experienced the emotional and physical stresses of infertility. Growing out of the conversations and emails among three girlfriends as they struggled to conceive, The Conception Chronicles is a candid and irreverent ("TTCs," for example, are women "Trying To Conceive") yet reassuring guide that "tells it as it is." The authors provide thorough information about diagnosis, treatment options, and, no less important, the dilemmas and strains of infertility. "Tales from the TTCs" (personal stories from friends who have faced infertility) and emails by the authors are interspersed throughout the narrative, which make this a highly comprehensible and supportive book. Written by three psychologists who cofounded the Center for Reproductive Psychology in San Diego, Unsung Lullabies also evolved from the authors' own problems with achieving parenthood. Their premise is that everyone has a "reproductive story," a largely unconscious narrative of one's expectations of parenthood that begins in childhood and progresses through the adult years. The fact that this reproductive story may not unfold as expected is what the book deals with so well. Part 1 describes infertility as a trauma that must be recognized and dealt with; Part 2 explains "why it hurts so bad"; Part 3 defines the steps of grieving and coping; and Part 4 provides information to assist readers in "rewriting" their reproductive histories as they go through treatment. Although Unsung Lullabies does have its lighter moments, it is somewhat more intense and certainly more thorough in the psychological analysis of infertility than The Conception Chronicles, which offers more detailed, practical medical advice and is without question more pleasurable and engrossing reading. Still, the two titles complement each other and are both enthusiastically recommended for all consumer health collections.-Linda M.G. Katz, Drexel Univ. Health Sciences Libs., Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.