Finding a path and making meaningful connections. A webinar for professional childless people and inclusive business groups.
With World Childless Week Ambassadors Berenice Howard-Smith, Karin Enfield De Vries and World Childless Week 2021 People's Champion Sarah Lawrence. You can find their details below.
DATE: Thursday 15th September
TIME: 12.00pmBST Find your time zone here
REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR HERE
Please note: This webinar will be recorded and available to view on the website, if you are unable to attend it live. You do not need to register to watch the replay.
Berenice Smith - England
After failed IVF cycles and miscarriages over ten years I now identify as being childness not by choice and coming to terms with a life I wasn't expecting after a period of poor mental health.
In 2016 I founded storytelling and creative website called Walk In Our Shoes for my Masters degree which was also the first time I spoke about childlessness outside my relationship.
I am one-third of the Full Stop podcast for the childless not by choice community. I am an award-winning graphic designer and run Hello Lovely, my plan B! I am the designer of the World Childless Week branding and website.
I am passionate about sharing stories to create allies in other demographics. I have spoken at Fertility Fest, PechkaKucha events and business networks including the gender and equality network at Cambridge University.
I live in Cambridge with my husband and our rescue dog, Molly. We can often be found on the Norfolk beaches.
Karin Enfield De Vries - Netherlands
Having spent my 20’s working, travelling, playing music across Europe, buying my first home and finding love, I got married in my early 30’s. In 2012, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 33.
A body in pieces, my dreams of motherhood shattered and recovery journey that took a lot longer than expected. With the help of support groups like Gateway Women and the childless community, I embarked on my healing journey.
I have been working for Gateway Women from 2018 till June 2022. Since July 2022 I run my own Grief and Loss Counselling practice, Pure Transformations through which I offer counselling and coaching with a strong focus on the grief that can come with childlessness. I also volunteer as a guest speaker for various cancer trusts in the Netherlands to help raise awareness of the long term consequences of being childless after cancer.
Sarah Lawrence - England
It’s been one hell of a life changing journey over the past five and a half years in terms of my infertility and ultimate childlessness.
Not content with having one fertility wrecking condition, I had two. I’d struggled for years with health problems, that none of the ‘experts’ identified. It wasn’t until my miscarriage in 2012, that I was taken seriously and would ultimately be diagnosed with stage four Endometriosis in 2014.
I’m going to be honest, my mental health has always been a bit shaky, but after the miscarriage, I hit my lowest point...or so I thought. Because, less than two years later I was told there would be no children during a 10 minute consultation. It was then that I truly became familiar with what it feels like to hit rock bottom.
What got me through it? Counselling, soul searching and a level of bloody mindedness that even surprised me. I wasn’t going to be beat by this thing, even though there have been times that I’ve felt like it was going to.
However, that’s not the end of my story because just one year after being told I’d never have children of my own, my symptoms started to return. I was then diagnosed with Adenomyosis in 2015- a similar condition to Endometriosis, but it manifests in the muscular lining of the womb. It meant yet more procedures to hold off the symptoms and the inevitable hysterectomy. It was only ever going to be a short term fix and so ultimately I had to have this serious piece of surgery in November 2017. Hello again rock bottom!
While I was back down there for a while, by this time, I had already decided that financial services wasn’t where I wanted to be. I wanted to contribute and give back to my community. I’m now a qualified counsellor. I can give back to my community because I want to be able to support and empower people going through this difficult and painful process. And that’s why I set up After the Storm.