The author and her husband got pregnant easily and after that everything was hard. In elegant, spare prose, Ariel Balter unflinchingly and courageously chronicles the couple's five-year-long quest to have a child on the frontlines of the fertility industry. And though the journey ends successfully, this is not a simplistic or feel-good story. Instead, The Maternity Labyrinth raises difficult questions not only about the costs-emotional, financial, moral- of assisted reproduction but also the very human desire to become a parent. Balter has written a moving, graceful and deeply honest book.
Alexandra Enders, author of Bride Island
The Maternity Labyrinth offers a window into the very personal experience of one woman as she navigates the often bewildering, frustrating, dehumanizing and heart-wrenching experience of family building for the infertile. Ariel Balter gives voice to this experience and to the feelings that accompany it - a voice that will be welcome to many who feel alone in their struggle through the labyrinth.
Shana (Susan) G. Millstein, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics,
University of California, San Francisco
The Maternity Labyrinth is a must read for anyone who has gone through fertility treatments, assisted reproductive technology procedures or experienced the terrible tensions between hope and fear integral to the process. Professionals working in the fields of Infertility, Assisted Reproductive Technology, Maternity and Maternal Mental Health need this book as do family members and anyone who wants to understand the emotional nooks and crannies of playing against the odds to have a baby of one's own. The Maternity Labyrinth is a treasured gift to all of us-making sense of the twenty-first century new world of Fertility through the words of a mother who has lived it from the inside.
Diane Ehrensaft, Author of Mommies, Daddies, Donors,
Surrogates: Answering Tough Questions and Building Strong Families
