Books support us, enrich us and invite us to travel. They also help us to understand how others feel and how things work that are unfamiliar to us. That is why at IVF-Life we want to join the celebration of the World Book Day, sharing a selection of stories about Assisted Reproduction and different families that are formed with the help of Reproductive Medicine.
Likewise, the Spanish Society of Fertility (SEF) recommends telling the child, with the help of stories, that it has been the result of much love and science. They recommend doing so between the ages of 3 and 8, when the child is building his or her identity
Our selection of stories about Assisted Reproduction:
The Pea That Was Me: An IVF Story
(Kimberly Kluger-Bell)
A perfect way to introduce children to the special way they were received. This story lets them know that you wanted them with all your heart but had trouble having them. Telling them that a “very good doctor” helped mommy and daddy to fulfil their dreams. It introduces the very basic fact that to make a baby you need an egg and a sperm.
This is just a small selection of stories about Assisted Reproduction we want to share with you in hope to normalise and give visibility to the different families that we help to form every day. It is also a good pretext to encourage reading.
(Sheri Sturniolo)
Sometimes mommies and daddies need a little help to form a family. In this story you will follow a couple as they experience the hopes and also some disappointments of creating a family, and how all the generosity and love they experience from others grows into the most beautiful gift.
You Were Made for Me is a book for children that takes a look into the unique and wonderful ways that some families are made, and the journey of love that brings them together.
A tiny itsy bitsy gift of life, an egg donor story
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An egg donation story for children, about a happy couple of rabbits called Pally and Comet who have everything in life except a baby bunny. During the story you accompany them in their longing for a child, the waiting and the moment the mother is told she doesn’t have any egg to have a baby. One day another lady rabbit brings her a tiny gift, which is the egg, the half, she needs to have her baby. The rabbit s tummy then begins to grow and finally her baby bunny is born and the happiness of how this family grows is shared.
(Emma Levey)
This story is about Hattie Peck, who loves eggs, but has only ever laid one egg—and it never hatched. She only thinks and dreams about eggs. So, she decides if she can’t lay another egg, she will go out into the world to find one. Hattie embarks on a journey in search of abandoned eggs. She will look for them at many different places, living amazing adventures. In the end she is not finding one, but many abandoned eggs!
(Rachel Greener)
In this honest, accessible illustrated guide to how babies are made, young readers can find out exactly what is needed to grow a baby, from introducing the basic building blocks of life such as sperm and eggs, to explaining the different ways that these building blocks can be put together to create a family.
Written win gentle and accessible language Making a Baby covers sex, sperm and egg donation, IUI, IVF, surrogacy and adoption, as well as explaining how a baby grows in the womb and about different kinds of births including c-sections.
Happy Together: an egg donation story
(Julie Marie, Ashley Lucas)
A heartwarming book to help introduce the concept of egg donation to a young child. A story told through clear language and cheerful illustrations, readers will join Mommy and Daddy bear on the journey to fulfill their greatest wish of becoming parents. With help from a doctor, an egg from a special lady called a donor and Daddy’s seed, a baby grew in Mommy’s tummy and was welcomed with great joy.
“To travel far, there is no better ship than a book” (Emily Dickinson)
