List Books » Conquering Infertility: Dr. Alice Domar's Mind/Body Guide to Enhancing Fertility and Coping with Infertility
Authors: Alice D. Domar, Alice Lesch Kelly
ISBN-13: 9780142002018, ISBN-10: 0142002011
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Date Published: February 2004
Edition: Reprint
Dr. Alice Domar is the founder and director of the world-renowned Mind/Body Program for Infertility. She is also assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. She lives in Boston with her husband and two daughters.
Alice Lesch Kelly is a freelance writer specializing in women's health. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Health, Fit Pregnancy, Readers Digest, Shape, and many other publications.
Infertility is a heartbreaking condition that affects nine million American couples each year. It causes tremendous stress, can trigger debilitating sadness and depression, and can tear a marriage to shreds. In Conquering Infertility, Harvard psychologist Alice Domarwhom Vogue calls the “Fertility Goddess”provides infertile couples with what they need most: stress relief, support, and hope. Using the innovative mind/body techniques she has perfected at her clinic, Domar helps infertile women not only regain control over their lives but also boost their chances of becoming pregnant.
With Conquering Infertility, women learn how to cope with infertility in a much more positive way and to carve a path toward a rich, full, happy life.
Focusing on a topic the author covered more briefly in Healing Mind, Healthy Women, Domar, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard, with freelance writer Kelly, provides here a well-written and supportive self-help manual for women who have been unable to sustain a pregnancy. The stresses that accompany infertility can impact negatively on a woman's relationship with her husband, family members, friends and colleagues. Domar strongly recommends and fully describes such relaxation techniques as yoga, meditation, journal writing and guided imagery as useful ways to cope with infertility treatments, feelings of failure, and obsessive envy of women who are mothers. She also details how to overcome sexual and emotional tensions that spring up between married couples around this issue. Drawing on case studies and recent research indicating that the depression resulting from infertility can actually hinder attempts to become pregnant, the author advocates a positive approach based on self-nurturing that will improve an infertile woman's outlook on life. Domar also discusses when it may be time to abandon expensive and painful infertility treatments and, depending on the individuals involved, explore using donor eggs or sperm, pursue adoption or come to a decision to remain childless. 7-city author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Acknowledgments | ix | |
Introduction | 1 | |
1. | Infertility, Stress, and Depression | 9 |
2. | A Toolbox Full of Coping Skills | 38 |
3. | Coping When Everyone But You Has a Baby | 75 |
4. | You and Your Husband | 93 |
5. | Turning to Family and Friends for Support | 118 |
6. | Infertility and Your Career | 132 |
7. | Special Cases: Secondary Infertility and Infertility in the Unmarried Woman | 153 |
8. | Why Won't God Give Me a Baby? | 172 |
9. | The Nitty-gritty of Infertility Treatment: Financial and Medical Issues | 189 |
10. | When Miracles Don't Happen: Coping When Treatment Fails | 217 |
11. | Other Paths to Parenthood | 241 |
Appendix 1 | Lifestyle Changes That Increase Fertility | 271 |
Appendix 2 | Resources | 281 |
Selected Bibliography | 287 | |
Index | 293 |