The love of a mother is fierce as a lion, strong as an ox and tender as a dove. It’s the love that makes the world go round, an archetypal force that brings forth the generations and connects women of all classes and cultures.
But do women who have become pregnant through fertility treatment have a slightly different relationship with their children from those who have conceived naturally? Do the years of struggling to have a child make the love more intense if the baby eventually arrives?
And what about pregnancy? Is that fraught with particular anxieties for women who have miscarried many times? Is it ever possible to find a way to enjoy it?
We will be asking some of these questions at Fertility Fest 2019, when I’m chairing a session, Parenting after IVF at the Barbican, London.
The evening will start with a performance of To the Moon and Back, a dialogue between a mother and daughter on the experience of IVF from their respective perspectives – a fertility patient and a person born as a result of reproductive science. It uncovers th intensity and complexity of being born “special”.
The artists, Anna Furse and Nina Klaff will join me in conversation with Ann Daniels, record-breaking polar explorer and mum of IVF triplets, and Victoria Macdonald, Channel 4’s health and social care correspondent.
Do IVF parents love their children differently? I’ve no idea. But I am hoping to learn something. Do join us on Friday 26 April to find out. Or I will post an update and let you