You're listening to 3 in 30 takeaways for Mom's Episode 178, coping through infertility.

Welcome to 3 in 30, a podcast for moms who want to create more meaning in motherhood.

Each 30-minute episode will feature three doable takeaways for you to try at home

with your family this week. I'm your host Rachel Nielsen. Thank you so much for being here.

It's National Infertility Awareness Week here in the United States, and this is a topic that I

am so passionate about and intimately connected with because my two miracle children came to our

family after I struggled with infertility for years. I knew from the time I was a teenager that I

might struggle with infertility due to polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis. So when my

husband Ryan and I were ready to start our family, we started infertility treatments and the adoption

process at the same time. I did almost a year of inter-uterine inseminations, had nectopic pregnancy

and had surgery to clear endometriosis before our NOAA arrived to be adoption in 2011. A few years

later I decided to skip the IUIs that had not worked before and go straight to in vitro fertilization,

and our miracle Sally was born about a year later. When I sum it up like that, it feels very

neat and tight up with the bow, but the truth is infertility is an excruciating trial, physically

and emotionally. I will never forget the never-ending doctors visits, the uncomfortable and invasive

tests and procedures, the medications that made me feel crazy, the enlist waiting, the raised hopes

and the crushing disappointments month after month, the loneliness and the heartache, the list could

go on and on. If you are currently facing this trial, I want you to know that I see you and I'm so

sorry. You are not alone and I hope that something within today's episode will give you a little

glimmer of hope or one small perspective shift or one new tool to try out to support yourself.

Our guest today is Genika Parcell, an infertility warrior mama and advocate and a certified

life coach who specializes in supporting those who are going through this trial. Genika has created

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