Infertile in a Baby-Crazed World

Posted on Aug 13, 2006

From Glamour

Glamour magazine runs a thoughtful piece about how we’re witnessing “a rampaging, almost hysterical fixation on pregnancy and babies and how having them will transform your life and allow you to reach nirvana”—and about the effect that’s having on the infertile among us.

Glamour:

I know. I should not care about Katie or Angelina or Gwyneth. I should concentrate on my own wellness and nurture hope for the future. Should, yes.

The problem is, the frenzy over pregnant celebrities is only one symptom of a larger phenomenon that—for fertile and infertile women alike—is nearly impossible to ignore: The world has become baby obsessed. “What we’re witnessing in our culture is a rampaging, almost hysterical fixation on pregnancy and babies and how having them will transform your life and allow you to reach nirvana,” says Susan J. Douglas, Ph.D., professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and coauthor of The Mommy Myth. “For infertile women, it’s like a giant megaphone of guilt and shame.”

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