Today marks the start of National Fertility Awareness Week. In the few years that this has been on my radar, I’ve often accompanied this announcement with a jingle or dance so please just imagine I am shimmying around as you read this. This year feels different for me. I could put it down to being a post-fertility treatment parent and…
“Have you thought about adoption?” This phrase has been running around my head throughout National Adoption Week. If I’m being completely honest, it runs through my head pretty regularly. I am thinking about it. When Elis and I were coming to terms with what azoospermia meant for us (“You can use a donor or adopt” said the consultant) adoption was…
I remember the first moment I saw a child with Down’s Syndrome after the results from my 6th miscarriage. I was sat on a pub terrace in Cornwall enjoying a glass of wine, the sun shining into my skin, my face flushed from the heat and the alcohol, my body sinking further into the cushioned wicker armchair I was sat…
So, this week is Baby Loss Awareness week, it’s also OCD Awareness week and apparently today is also world Mental Health Day, there may also be other deeply challenging life struggles remembered this week but to be honest I’m already feeling pretty overwhelmed by the three I’ve already listed. Now the thing about all three of these battles is that…
The following is a chapter from Lizzie’s book ‘Saltwater & Honey’ which she is currently working on. “I’m pregnant!” I whisper to my brother. His eyes respond with wide-eyed excitement, congratulating me with a silent ‘yay!’ The vicar stands to start the service and all eyes are forced forward, resting on the coffin at the front of the crowded chapel….
One of the most common conversations I have with Saltwater and Honey people is about loneliness. The story they carry with them when they go to work or go to church, or on a night out with friends or attending family parties makes them feel isolated. But the thing is they’re not the only ones, whether it’s depression, anxiety, grief,…
Silence, or my fear of silence, is something I’ve wanted to write about for a long time but I’ve struggled to find the words to express exactly what it makes me feel and how I’ve struggled with it. I guess it’s just one of those everyday life struggles that comes with living out a story you’re still not totally comfortable…
Last week we were put in touch with a couple who had a story of recurrent miscarriage, we offered to meet with them, to listen and to tell them they’re not alone. But they declined. After hearing our story of six miscarriages, no baby and no answers they decided they didn’t want to speak to us, I think our story…
I always knew that Jennifer Aniston and I were similar. Our great hair and comic timing are just a couple of examples. But her recent blog for The Huffington Post confirmed our compatibility. She’s fed up. I’m fed up. Actually, I’m not fed up. I’m sad. I’ve been sad for a little while now. I thought it was the weather…
Andrea Leadsom’s ambitions of being the next Prime Minister are in ashes: whatever your feelings about her, you could see, as she bowed out of the Conservative leadership contest yesterday, that she was giving up on a dream. But before the whole saga becomes yesterday’s hooha, it’s worth reflecting on what impact her comments about motherhood have had. Leadsom’s assertion…