Parents Via Egg Donation Organization

PVED's  Recommended Reading List

Below are books and articles that PVED gives two thumbs up! Click on a link and it will re-direct you to the authors website.

• A tiny Itsy Bitsy Gift of Life
  A children’s egg donor story
  by: Carmen Martínez Jover
  
  A touching children’s egg donor story about a happy couple of rabbits, Pally and Comet who have everything in life except a baby bunny…you accompany them in their longing for this child, the waiting and the moment the mother is informed she has no eggs to conceive. One day a good lady rabbit brings her a tiny itsy bitsy gift of life, which is the egg –the half– she needs to conceive. The rabbit’s tummy then begins to grow and finally her baby bunny is born and the happiness of how this family is formed is shared.
  
  The book is very colorful and ideal for children even before they can read, because the pictures are so full of details it easily captures the child’s attention. It is my intention that the book should be easy for parents to read to their child so that gradually, as the child grows they will begin to understand their origins, in an easy and amusing manner.

• Should Your Reproductive Endocrinologist Be Required To Have A Good Bedside Manner? 
                                                                      I receive lots of emails daily from women all over the world either singing praises or shaking their heads at their Reproductive Endocrinologists. For every negative email I receive about poor patient care I receive two emails that say nice, encouraging and all around positive things about their RE and clinic.

• Creating Life Against The Odds
  The Journey From Infertility To Parenthood
  By Dr. Lonny Higgins
  
  Most prospective parents, when arriving at the decision to have children, presume their journey will be an exciting and rewarding one, resulting in the birth of a healthy baby. When those dreams are shattered by their inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term, they ask, “Why me? What did I do wrong?
  
  In Creating Life Against The Odds, Dr. Lonny Higgins has gathered numerous firsthand accounts from individuals around the world who have traversed the maze of infertility treatment. What have been these parents’ misgivings? Is it God’s will that they should be barren? Are they selfish to want to bring another child into a world where there are already too many mouths to feed? She also takes us into the minds and hearts of donors looking into what makes them want to lend such an intimate, helping hand, not just to a relative or friend, but to a complete stranger. Are they like organ donors? Do they do it for financial gain? Is it just naivete? And what about the children? Whose children are they, really? When assisted reproductive technology enters the picture, who are the real parents? What do the children say about how they came to be?

• Hope & Will Have a Baby: The Gift of Egg Donation                            by Iréné Celcer
  illustrated by Horacio Gatto
  
  The Hope and Will Have a Baby series is a welcomed addition to the children's books genre of non-traditional family building. What stands out when reading these stories is that the subject matter never veers from the overriding message that children born into our world through reproductive efforts are loved and truly cherished. Celcer takes five reproductive options and tells a story about a couple's struggle to have a child. Each story's theme describes Hope and Will's desire to become parents in clear terms using descriptive language that children can understand.
  Using the same initial and final storylines, the five reproductive options are inserted midway through the book: surrogacy, egg donation, embryo donation, sperm donation, and adoption. Needless to say, each story has a happy ending with Hope and Will achieving their dream of having a baby and becoming parents.
  
  The illustrations are delightful which will appeal to children of many ages. Celcer uses language that is delivered in a straightforward fashion but in a soft and gentle tone that exudes warmth and comfort. This sweet and endearing series of books are recommended additions to all home libraries in an effort to best appreciate the various ways families come to be and to welcome all children born through these means.
  
  
• Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation
  by Elen Sarasohn Glazer and Evelina Weidman Sterling
  
  Increasingly, friends, family members, or physicians are asking , "Have you thought about egg donation?" It is asked of women who have lost ovaries (or ovarian function) to cancer treatment, women born without ovaries or having lost them to surgery, women unable to attempt pregnancy until they were over 30, young women being diagnosed with premature ovarian failure, and gay couples, more and more of whom are considering parenthood through collaborative reproduction.
  Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation is the first comprehensive book for people considering parenthood through donated ova. It takes readers through the decision making process, focusing on questions they are likely to be asking themselves, including: "Are we candidates for egg donation?" "Will it work?" "How much does it cost?" "How do we find a donor?" "Should we ask a family member or work with a stranger?" "How do we talk about our decision with others?" "How will we tell our children?" Ethical questions related to egg donation are also examined: "Can a donor truly have informed consent?" "Is it ethically correct for donors to receive payment, and, if so, is the payment for ‘time and effort’ or for their eggs?" Perhaps the thorniest question of all is "How old is too old?"
  
  For readers facing the unfamiliar new terrain of ovum donation, Ellen Sarasohn Glazer and Evelina Weidman Sterling are wise and compassionate guides. In simple, clear, informative, and sensitive language, they address feelings that arise for individuals and couples facing egg donation decisions. Drawing from different and complementary areas of expertise-Glazer is a counselor and infertility coach, Sterling a public health specialist and medical ethicist-they provide readers with information and understanding

• Mommy, Was Your Tummy Big?
  by Carolina Nadel
  
  A mother elephant explains her use of donor eggs to her child. With charming illustrations and simple words, "Mommy, was your tummy big?"can help parents who used in vitro fertilization and donor eggs begin to explain the process to their small children.
  The book has been praised by many mental health professionals who work with fertility clinics, and an NYU Child Study Center article offers it as an example of how to tell a young child about his/her donor egg origins. It is on all major lists of books recommended for helping parents explain the use of donor eggs, including that of ASRM(American Society for Reproductive Medicine).
  
  Paperback versions are available in Spanish and covering Donor Insemination on Lulu.com. For bulk orders at a discount and to view an older version of the entire book for free go to my website: CarolinaNadel.com.

• Mommies, Daddies, Donors, Surrogates: Answering Tough Questions and Building Strong Families
  by Diane Ehrensaft
  
  With the spread of nontraditional families and the rise of infertility, "assisted conception" (donor insemination, egg donation, surrogate mothering or any combination of the above) is a big new fact of life. After two decades of counseling "biosocial" families, Ehrensaft, a clinical and developmental psychologist (Parenting Together; Spoiling Childhood), wrote this honest, down-to-earth manual to help parents work through the problems. Just because people are brave enough to create nontraditional families doesn't mean they've anticipated the difficult questions those arrangements raise. Do shared genes give the biological parent more rights than the "social" parent? Is it wrong to have fantasies about sperm donors? How do you decide how much to involve the "birth other" in the "family matrix"? At what age do you tell your child his or her birth story? What do you tell them? Ehrensaft groups the issues thematically with plenty of firsthand anecdotes. An experienced therapist, she acknowledges up front many things we do that we shouldn't: social moms feeling jealous of surrogates, parents hiding the truth from their children, etc. She understands—and then nudges parents in a better direction.
  
  
  

DONATE TODAY!: