Join Stephanie Joy Phillips as she speaks with Cristina Archetti, Jessica Hepburn, Yvonne John and Tess Broad to discuss the process of writing their books; what they hoped to achieve and what they learned from the process. How they have all used words to explore their childlessness.
Stephanie is an advocate for the healing power of sharing our stories, having felt the relief herself when expressing her story in childless support groups.
Cristina processed her own trauma and investigated the reasons for the silence that surrounds involuntary childlessness, in her book Childlessness in the age of communication: Deconstructing silence (2020).
Jessica has written two books: The Pursuit of Motherhood & 21 Miles to raise awareness of what it feels like to struggle to conceive, and how to find acceptance when your life doesn’t go the way you want it to.
Tessa explored her thoughts on what sort of mother she would have hoped to be in her book Dear You; A letter to my unborn children.
Date: Monday 13th September 2021
Time: 11am Pacific Time US, 1pm Central Time US, 2pm Eastern Time US, 7pm London UK
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PLEASE NOTE: The webinar will be recorded, but your camera and microphone will be turned off. The chat and question box is not recorded and will only be visible to other participants during the live webinar.
Stephanie Joy Phillips
World Childless Week Founder
A large part of my twenties was spent in an abusive relationship and I took the contraceptive pill to ensure children would not be born into that situation. In my early thirties I met my husband to be but we didn’t try to conceive until I was nearing forty. At the age of 39 we were told “if he manages to get you pregnant it is highly unlikely you’ll carry full term”. I knew in that moment, I would never be a mum.
In 2017 I founded World Childless Week and shouted out “We Are Worthy” but the words still stuck in my throat. Now at 54 I’m hitting the grandparent announcement triggers but I’m OK and working through them. I’m moving forwards with you x
I admin several Facebook groups including Childless Path To Acceptance for those past the point of trying to conceive, Childless Chit Chat and Childless Perks!! whose emphasis is on breaking away from the support, building friendships and finding laughter in a safe child-free zone.
I live in Worcestershire with my husband and two rescue cats, Storm and Tea-Cup.
Cristina Archetti
World Childless Week Ambassador
Just when I thought my life was perfect—I had married the man of my dreams and I was at the ideal stage of my career to start a family—a diagnosis of ‘unexplained infertility’ destroyed my whole imagined future. I embarked on IVF without realizing how invasive and demeaning it would be, both physically and psychologically. When it failed, I was devastated: I had never been the little girl who wanted to be a mum as a grown up, yet I did not know any more who—or what—I was.
To process my own trauma and to investigate the reasons for the silence that surrounds involuntary childlessness, I wrote Childlessness in the age of communication: Deconstructing silence (2020), a reflection about the existential questions posed by not having children and an account of the way the taboo surrounding infertility is socially constructed. I also founded the first Norwegian organization for the permanently childless Andre veier: Foreningen for permanent barnløse.
Jessica Hepburn
World Childless Week Ambassador
I am childless because after a diagnosis of ‘Unexplained Infertility’, I went through 11 rounds of unsuccessful IVF and wasn’t in the right place to explore an alternative route to parenthood after this. I will never say never to becoming a parent in some form but my experience of infertility and unsuccessful IVF has made me who I am today.
Over the last decade I’ve become dedicated to transforming this sadness in my life into something good for myself, and hopefully other people too. I’ve written two books: The Pursuit of Motherhood & 21 Miles; founded the arts festival Fertility Fest; and taken on some of the world’s most iconic challenges (including swimming the English Channel and climbing Mount Everest) to raise awareness of what it feels like to struggle to conceive, and how to find acceptance when your life doesn’t go the way you want it to.
Yvonne John
World Childless Week Ambassador
I am supporting World Childless Week because I feel that it is important for women who are childless not by choice to be heard.
As a woman of colour I have been silenced to the point of being too ashamed to say that I am childless but now I can celebrate the woman that I have become through the power of owning my story".
Yvonne John is the author of Dreaming of a Life Unlived
Tess Broad
Tessa Broad was born in Suffolk, spent her early career in London working in marketing and event management for a number of different publishers and a children’s charity. She now lives in deepest rural Cornwall in an old farmhouse with her second husband and their beloved cocker spaniel. She loves gardening, football and baking and has a passion for fashion and interior design. Tessa would also love to be able to play boogie-woogie piano and is presently writing a novel about a music teacher called Penny who can.
Many years ago I wrote a letter to the children of my imagination, the family that I had nurtured in my head that wasn’t to be. It was a gushy missive, all hearts and flowers but I felt it was cathartic for me at a time when I was on the cusp of accepting my lot as a childless woman. I have since written a second letter, a very much longer letter, which has been published as Dear You: A Letter to my Unborn Children.
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