Almost 1 in 6 couples struggle with fertility issues in the UK today. A recent survey by Fertility Network UK (2021) also underlines the increase in parents-to-be using ART, donor conception and surrogacy to create or expand their families. However even for those who become parents, pregnancy may still be a very fraught experience, and expectations of the postpartum period may not be immediately realised. Pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, bonding and attachment and other postpartum experiences may also fall short of what parents have imagined. Parents may need to mourn and learn to let go of the ‘reproductive story’ (Diamond & Jaffe, 2011).
By attending this 3 hour webinar you will:
- Consider the psychological impacts of infertility (primary and secondary) and reproductive loss on parental experiences of pregnancy and parenting
- Re-evaluate common expectations around parent -infant bonding and attachment for those pregnant and parenting after infertility
- Explore how different paths to parenthood may affect parental identity
- Look at how psychological issues may emerge at this time for individuals and couples
- Learn about specific psychological concepts linked to parenthood after infertility such as the ‘penumbra baby’ (Reid, 2007), pregnancy intendedness vs pregnancy preparedness (McMahon, 1999) and matresence after infertility (Athan, 2024)
- Think about how typical presenting issues may require different psychological interventions eg narrative approaches, listening skills, holding, stabilisation
- Have space to think of the impact on you of the work and ways of managing this
