Roxane Head Dinkin, PhD, a clinical psychologist practicing in Bradenton, Florida, who has long dealt with the problems of infertile women, and history professor Robert J. Dinkin have created an informative book showcasing seven prominent women who struggled with infertility and became creative powerhouses in a variety of fields. Unable to have children themselves, the Dinkins utilized their combined expertise and discovered how these seven women had worked through their infertility issues and honed their creativity to more fully utilize their talents: - Juliette Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA - Joy Adamson, wildlife conservationist and author of Born Free - Josephine Baker, entertainer and adoptive mother of twelve - Frida Kahlo, innovative artist - Emma Goldman, anarchist and birth-control advocate - Ruth Benedict, leading anthropologist - Marilyn Monroe, film star and sexual icon Infertility produces a profound loss for women who hold the expectation that they will reproduce. Infertility and the Creative Spirit clearly illustrates the connection between the desire and inability to have children and lasting accomplishments in other areas of life, showing how infertile women contribute to the next generation.

Belle Boggs recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She searches the apparently fertile world around her--the emergence of thirteen-year cicadas, the birth of eaglets near her rural home, and an unusual gorilla pregnancy at a local zoo--for signs that she is not alone. Boggs also explores other aspects of fertility and infertility: the way longing for a child plays out in the classic Coen brothers film "Raising Arizona"; the depiction of childlessness in literature, from "Macbeth" to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"; the financial and legal complications that accompany alternative means of family making; the private and public expressions of iconic writers grappling with motherhood and fertility. She reports complex stories of couples who adopted domestically and from overseas, LGBT couples considering assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and women and men reflecting on childless or child-free lives.

Surviving Reproductive Loss: Stories of Creativity and Positive Transformation in Women’s Lives tells the fascinating stories of the lives and creative accomplishments of nearly fifty women who experienced infertility, pregnancy loss or stillbirth. Robert J. Dinkin, PhD, historian, and Roxane Head Dinkin, PhD, clinical psychologist, have teamed up again to write a follow-up to their previous volume, Infertility and the Creative Spirit, published by iUniverse in 2010. The Dinkins tell the stories of women innovators in writing, entertaining, sports, politics, and social reform. When Julia Child was living in Paris with her husband Paul and unable to become pregnant, she turned to learning the art of French cooking, ultimately producing her famous cookbooks and TV shows. When she showed up with a hot plate and an omelet pan on an educational television program, the first cooking show was born. Read about her and the many other women who made major contributions in their own fields and who also changed the larger society by contributing to the well-being of women and children.

The Creative Feminine and her Discontents, Psychotherapy, Art, and Destruction, is a look at creativity from a woman's perspective. By looking at artistic endeavour, mothering and psychotherapeutic relationships, Juliet Miller considers how a patriarchal world distorts the channels through which women discover their own creative voices. She argues that the dynamics of female creativity are more multi-layered and conflicted for women for a variety of historical, cultural and archetypal reasons and suggests that an attack on the creative feminine has been exacerbated by the history and teaching of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Miller looks to the artistic community to discover new ways for the creative feminine to grow and assesses how ideas of destruction and anarchy are crucial for the expression of a feminine self. The work of two contemporary sculptors, Cornelia Parker and Louise Bourgeois, is explored to show how there can be authentic relationships to creativity through the ideas of deconstruction and reconstruction in their work. This book will interest psychotherapists and analysts and both women and men interested in their own relationship to their creativity.

Am I Meant to Become a Parent? Why Can’t I Conceive? What Is My Unborn Child Trying to Tell Me? In this reassuring, supportive, and accessible book, leading clairvoyant and medium Walter Makichen offers guidance to prospective parents eager to create a warm, nurturing environment for their soon-to-be-conceived-or-born children. Applying the wisdom and insights he has gained through twenty years of communicating with these spirit babies, Makichen helps you resolve issues about starting a family…actively participate in the psychic process of creating a child…and move past your worries and fears about becoming parents. From the seven essential chakras that link our body, mind, and spirit to why pregnant women are superpsychic, you’ll discover: * How to create the energy that nurtures spirit babies * How to understand how past lives and chakras relate to your unborn child * The conception contract–what it is and what it means for you and your child * How karmic pairings affect conception and pregnancy * Why miscarriages occur and what they can signify Plus spirit babies and guardian angels…spirit babies and adoption…spirit babies and dreams…and much more Featuring inspirational examples of couples who are now happy parents, as well as breath exercises and healing meditations at the end of each chapter, Spirit Babies tells you everything you need to know to become the parent you were meant to be.

Unlike most infertility books that focus on medical treatment, Healing the Infertile Family examines the social and emotional problems experienced by couples confronting infertility and suggests how they can be alleviated. In this updated edition, Gay Becker discusses her most recent study of couples experiencing infertility and offers guidelines for resolution of this common problem that will enable couples to face the future with hope. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

An essential text in the field of contemporary art history, it has now been updated to represent 30 countries and over 100 new artists. The internationalism evident in this revised edition reflects the growing interest in contemporary art throughout the world from the U.S. and Europe to the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australia.

One in every six United States couples experiences infertility but Catholic couples face additional confusion, worry, and frustration as they explore the medical options available to them. Filling a major void in Catholic resources, The Infertility Companion for Catholics is the first book to address not only the medical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of infertility, but also the particular needs of Catholic couples who desire to understand and follow Church teaching on the use of assisted reproductive technology. Authors Angelique Ruhi-López and Carmen Santamaría offer the support and wisdom gained in their own struggles with infertility. They describe the options that Catholic couples can pursue in seeking to conceive, many of which are not ordinarily presented by the medical community. In an encouraging and non-judgmental tone, they address both husbands and wives and help them recognize the emotional impact of infertility on their relationship. The Infertility Companion for Catholics presents a variety of spiritual resources including prayers, devotions, and the wisdom of the saints and provides suggestions for further reading of reference materials, Catholic documents, and Catholic blogs about infertility.

An honest look at the messiness of life when you are forced to live the life you didn't imagine. Salt Water and Honey is a story about pregnancy loss and childlessness that doesn't end with a baby. It's told from the messy middle, allowing space for the tension between faith and loss to remain rather than trying to neaten it up with solutions and reasons. Lizzie has experienced the pain of multiple miscarriages and writes honestly about her struggle and fight to find God in her suffering. She is honest about the low points and the pain, but she also shares her journey as she comes to understand that her true identity is not defined by motherhood but by being a child of God. Lizzie's story provides a safe space to remind people that they're not alone, it's okay to grieve and their story matters. Covering many universal truths such as unanswered prayer, grief, disappointment, vulnerability and faith in crisis this book is actually for anyone who has lost their dream and is struggling to understand that their story still has meaning and purpose even when life looks nothing like they hoped it would.

In African Women and the Shame and Pain of Infertility: An Ethico-Cultural Study of Christian Response to Childlessness among the Igbo People of West Africa, Okoro discusses the shipwreck that is associated with infertility in marriage in Africa. Within this space, childlessness places a big question mark on a woman's femininity and the self-esteem of the man. The stigma of infertility most often leads to social isolation and humiliation, particularly of married women, even when the source of infertility may not have come from them. Unfortunately, this situation goes against the highly valued Igbo ethical principle of onye aghala nwanne ya, meaning "no kith or kin should be left behind." Therefore, the purpose of the book is to help married people in Igbo land and Africa at large to appropriate this indigenous principle in their response to the problem of infertility. To attain this, the author critically evaluates discrimination and oppression of infertile couples, particularly women, and shedding light on the paradoxes found in Igbo cultural expressions. He employs a constructive, ethical, cultural, religious, contextual, and theological approach that explores important Igbo religious paradigms like Chi (an Igbo religio-cultural understanding of personal destiny) and Ani (the feminine deity in-charge of the land and fertility) to argue the case for the liberation and integration of infertile couples.