I've used this space often to answer questions that I repeatedly hear. It's convenient to send people to my blog and simply say "read the post". I also tend to answer many questions here more thoroughly than I would when talking to someone at an event. Nevertheless, I have used this blog for more work-related topics. This post definitely hits far closer to home and involves what my wife is up to.
Those of you who know me know that my son is already past two years of age. My wife and I couldn't have been happier when we found out that we'd be having our boy and even more so when he was born happy and healthy. What many people may not know is that it was a very long process to get there. We had actually initiated trying to have a family at least 4 years prior to having our son. It was in no way an easy process, both technically and emotionally. It involved a lot of sweat, blood and tears one could say. Happily, for my wife and I, it ended up well. We remain married (which is very often not the case) and we choose to be open about our experience. Not surprisingly, we often encounter others who went through the same process and we've always happily discussed everything transparently. This is unfortunately still very rare among others.
One thing that you do end up realizing after such discussions is how scattered the information is about couples trying to conceive. There's almost too much information out there online to sift through and everyone offline has an opinion. The things you hear from people about "what to do" vary from helpful to downright nonsensical. Further, the medical field is bordering on unethical in its attitude to solving the problem. It probably is one of the easiest ways to milk money from people and take advantage of a situation where there is practically no downside to abuse of the system. There are ridiculous amounts of money involved in the process and the actors involved make it very difficult to trust anyone. Mind you, I am leaving out all the emotional hurdles that are intertwined in the process.
So, back to the point. I'm often asked what my wife does. Some people know that she used to be a teacher before taking time off to raise our son. She unfortunately never felt completely well in that role. She further always tended to be very entrepreneurial in her life, having built a couple smaller projects to generate cash flow. She ultimately wanted to be in control of her own fate on the career front and decided to look at her own life and generate a business idea. I may have played a role in always advising to see where your own struggles or problems are when trying to come up with a business idea. So, she basically decided to focus on women trying to conceive. She decided that she wanted to help those in the situation that she herself was in years ago. Further, she wanted to shed light on all the aspects of the process. It shouldn't be simply technical information nor should it only focus on the emotional side. The goal was to accompany the journey of women trying to have children and become a preferred resource, as well as shedding a light on things to avoid.
The website is called Ein Bisschen Schwanger. This translates to "half pregnant" and I believe represents the idea behind the resource well. For now, the website is only in German and I do apologize to my non-German readers. You will have to remain patient for a bit but it's one step after another for now as she is a one-woman show, working from home. The site brings together a podcast, regular blogposts and a YouTube page. She will also be holding seminars on the topic, offers coaching and there are other projects, such as a book in the works. The goal is to ultimately build a business out of this but the main focus is and will remain helping women and couples to conceive by giving them the unbiased information they need. My ask of you as a reader is to potentially point anyone whom you may know that may be interested in the direction of her website. Maybe it will help them to achieve their goal of having a child far quicker than we were able to.