Earlier this week, The Huffington Post had an article celebrating the life and work of Barbara Seamen who passed away recently. She was a woman who played a great role in women's health, advocacy and education and those who were around her in life say that she is sorely missed. In addition to providing interesting information about this individual, the article makes a really interesting point about the relationship between infertility and fertility in our society.
Boiled down to its basics, the point is that young women today spend so much time dealing with the realities of infertility that they may have forgotten the awe and wonder of fertility itself. They have to make conscious choices from a young age about whether or not to take birth control, whether or not to postpone having children due to their careers and how to cope with the medical facts of fertility and infertility. As a result, these women are more familiar with the negative side of fertility than with the magic of the pregnancy experience.
This isn't to say that we should stop talking about infertility issues. But it does suggest that there's an important need in society today for discussing the good things about fertility as well. Women who are struggling with infertility may use their reality to remind younger women of the good parts that fertility has to it.
Question of the Day: How can we balance the need to provide information about infertility with the need among society's young women to have an appreciation for the beauty of fertility?
