The day arrived when it was time to stop trying for the family my husband and I had always planned. We were sat in the car outside the hospital where we had just seen a re-occurring miscarriage specialist. It happened again and there was no way I could face another loss. Further health implications would follow but that was the moment I resigned myself to a whole new world of grief. It was far from acceptance. It felt more like a door slammed shut in our faces.
Read moreWhy I'm a World Childless Week Champion by Jody Day
“Since I started Gateway Women seven years ago, the topic of childlessness has gradually moved from the margins towards the mainstream, but those of us who are childless not by choice (CNBC) still face prejudice, stigma, ignorance and insensitivity in many areas of our lives: in our families and peer groups, in our communities, at work, in our places of workshop and from civic and medical services.”
Read moreCalling All Allies - Emma Palmer
I think a lot about ally-ship (is that a word?!) Ally-ship particularly, but not only, in terms of how those of us without children can be effective allies. It’s true that the lives of the happily childfree can be very different to the lives of folk early in the process of coming to terms with not being able to have a child, or never having been in the circumstances to have had them (and perhaps not yet having found their ‘plan B’ in the words of Gateway Women founder Jodie Day). It’s also true – I’ve seen it happen many times – that a lot can be gleaned and learned between the childless and childfree.
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