Synopses & Reviews
From the introduction:
Youre going to write about infertility? Youre going to write about IVF? About us?” he said. He practically cupped his hands over his crotch, like I was going to kick him in the balls.
Whats your problem?” I said. I wanted to blog about it. I wanted to get it off my chest. Too many women in Hollywood hide the fact that they cant have a baby the so-called normal way, and I didnt want to be one of them. Its my body thats broken, not yours,” I said.
The world doesnt need to know about this,” he said. Was he blushing? I suppose he had a say. He was the one I was trying to have a baby with. I was planning to marry him. But I also believed he was wrong.
Maybe the world does.”
My mother was such a role-model of truth-telling that Ive always known I would say and do whatever I needed to say and do. Whether it was pursuing what I was passionate about when I got out of college (acting) or revealing my big dark secret lurking in the closet to hundreds of thousands of strangers (infertility), I dont know how to hide the truth. I dont know how to keep my mouth shut. I dont know how not to say to other women, What do you think about this?”
Part of being a strong woman is telling the goddamn truth. Thats how you are true to yourself, and thats how you can be there for other women, too. Thats why Im writing this book. Women need to talk to each other. We need to share our stories. This is what makes a community. This is what holds us up. I believe this so strongly that Im willing to share my very private story, to be vulnerable in front of youso you can know that you are not alone.
Infertility can feel like a dirty little secret. Whats the opposite of emasculated? De-feminized? Whatever that word is, thats how infertility can make a woman feel. If you cant have a baby, especially if your heart aches to be a mother, if youre so baby crazy you cant think of anything else, infertility feels like a punch in the stomach, a negation of your power. What good are you? You can begin to feel like you are nothing, even if you keep on keeping on with your regular life, never revealing to anyone your private shame. Or, you get proactive--we go to such extreme lengths, financial and emotional and physical and intellectual, to have a baby, using every bit of modern technology we can get our hands on. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesnt.
I want to explore what all of this means. I want to ask the questions you might think to yourself, in your most dark and secret hour, but which you are afraid to voice. Are you a woman? Do you deserve a baby? Do you really even want a baby? And if you do, what price will you be willing to pay to get one?
In this book, I want to talk about these questions, in my own life and in yours. I want to talk about some of womens most terrifying and heartbreaking moments-- and some of our shallower, vainer moments, too. They all make us who we are. From the day I lost my mother to the day I had my daughter and everything in between, lets just put it all out there, shall we? Lets just say what we need to say.
Review
Kirkus Reviews, 3/15/13“An honest memoir about infertility and parenting…An authentic look at the inability to conceive a child and an alternative route to pregnancy.”
Synopsis
From actress and People.com blogger, a no-holds-barred sassy and heartfelt memoir about infertility, IVF, and becoming a mother
Synopsis
When Elisabeth Rohm started blogging about her family for People.com, she had no idea how many women would respond to her stories about struggling with infertility. Now the actress best known for her role on
Law and Order shares what she hasn’t yet: the full story of how in-vitro fertilization allowed her to have a child, how talking about infertility helped her cope with it, and how her desire for a baby and the difficult path that led to one taught her about herself and made her into the woman she was meant to be.
Rohm’s stories—told in a clear, funny, warmhearted voice—cover her untraditional childhood, and her long journey to motherhood. With the frankness of Down Came the Rain and the hope of A Place of Yes, Röhm encourages all women to share their stories because “when women stop talking, women stop being heard.”
About the Author
Elisabeth Röhm has been successfully juggling a full time job as a mother and actress since she gave birth to her daughter, Easton August, via in vitro fertilization in 2008. She is best known for her roles as Serena Southerlyn on the NBC series
Law and Order. In 2012 she will have appeared in
Chlorine,
Transit, and
Abduction. She recently completed filming the Lionsgate feature
Officer Down and an independent feature,
Darkroom. She currently has a recurring role on the Lifetime series The Client List, alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt and Cybil Shepherd. After receiving her degree from Sarah Lawrence, Röhm began her acting career on the soap
One Life to Liveand followed it up with a long line of recurring appearances on the WB television show,
Angel. After
Law and Order, she went on to star in the ABC drama
Big Shots and later returned to NBC to join the cast of the cult-favorite
Heroes. Röhm has also starred in numerous films, has graced the covers of
InStyle Weddings and
Health and Pregnancy magazine, and has appeared in features for
InStyle, People, US Weekly, LA Confidential, USA Today, and
Life and Style. She has well-established social media platforms on Facebook and Twitter, and writes a popular blog on People.com, on subjects relating to parenting and being a woman.
www.elisabeth-rohm.com.