Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! It is so hard to know how long to stay at each level of infertility treatment. How many months on Clomid, how many IUIs (artificial inseminations) and how many cycles of IVF is reasonable before moving to donor egg. What is the best way to manage your fertility dollars and still get pregnant? Our guests will be Dr. Alison Zimon, a reproductive endocrinologist at Bost...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Transracial Adoptions (Interracial Adoption) are becoming more common. Adoptive parents must talk with their children abour race, but that is often a hard conversation to have. When to start, what to say, and how to prepare them for racism without scaring them. Our guests to talk about talking with transracially adopted children about race are Beth Hall, Founder and...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! To get pregnant using fertility treatment, such as in vitro fertilization, requires good embryos. Up unitl recently choosing the best embryos was more art than science. New research is changing that equation. Dr. Marcy Maguire, a Reproductive Embryologist at Reproductice Medical Assiociates of New Jersey and Clinical Assistant Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Overcoming Reluctance to Donor Egg, Sperm, or Embryo in Your Extended Family. This was a topic suggested by our audience. There are few, if any, resources available to help infertility patients navigate who to tell about using third party reproduction. Our guest is Bette Galen, a licensed clinical social worker specializing in infertiliy who has worked at Reproductiv...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Adopting a toddler is NOT the same as adopting an infant or adopting a school aged child. As the waiting times for international adoption increase more families are adopting older babies and toddlers. Foster care adoptions are also increasing and families are facing the unique issues associated with adopting children between the ages of 1 and 4. Join our guest Mary H...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! The stigma against HIV is alive and well in the US and the world, and no where does this play out more poignantly than in the thousands of orphans with HIV. Adoptive parents are often afraid of adopting a child with HIV. How sick will these children be? What is their life expectancy? How much risk do they pose to other family members? Our guest are Dr. Jan Piatt, Med...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! What are the risks of attempting to get pregnant after cancer? Should you try? How long should you wait. What is the risk to the child and mother. Host Dawn Davenport will interview two of the leading experts in the US on Pregnancy after Cancer: Dr. Jacqueline Jeruss, a breast surgeon and the Oncofertility Consortium's Clinical Co-Director of Oncology and an Ass...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Can your immune system affect your ability to get pregnant or stay pregnant? What is the immunological conncetion to infertility or miscarriage. Host Dawn Davenport will interview Dr. William Kutteh, board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist, with a Ph. D. in Molecular Biology and Immunology. He serves as Director of Fertility Associates of Memphis and Laboratory...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Not all adoptions are forever. Some fail. Recent reports by NBC News, the Today Show, and Reuters focused on the devastating outcomes for some kids and families, but left unanswered how often adoptions fail, what types of adoptions are at the most risk for adoption disruption or adoption dissolution, and what to do to prevent them from failing.   Host Dawn Davenport...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Evaluating the risk of Prenatal Alcohol and Drug Exposure is one of the hardest decisions adoptive parents must make. Host Dawn Davenport will interview Dr. Ira Chasnoff, one of the nation's leading researchers on long term effects of prenatal alcohol and drug exposure and author of a new book on the subject--The Mystery of Risk. Dr. Chasnoff is President of the...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! We tell people to check out the Center for Disease Control statistics before selecting an infertility clinic, but how in the world do you make sense of these numbers. Which ones are truly important? Can they be manipulated? Host Dawn Davenport will interview Dr. David Adamson, reproductive endocrinologist and Medical Director of Fertility Physicians of Northern Calif...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Advances in egg freezing in the last couple of years have been huge. Should you use egg freezing to allow you to wait to have children later? Is this technique reliable and safe? How much does it cost, and how expensive is storage? Host Dawn Davenport will interview Dr. Daniel Shapiro, Medical Director of Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta and Clinical Manage...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Most international adoptions are now special needs adoptions, as are adoptions from US foster care. Are you up to adopting a child with special needs? Host Dawn Davenport interviews Martha Osborne, founder and director of Rainbow Kids, a photolisting website for harder to place children; and Dr. Lisa Nalven, a developmental pediatrician, specializing in caring for ch...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Traveling with kids is hard enough when you know them and they know you. How in the world do you travel with with a newly adopted child. How do you keep a child entertained during the plane, cab, car, bus rides that are inevitable? Join our guests Brooke Randolph, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and founding team member MLJ Adoptions, Inc., where she currently ser...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Increasingly US citizens are looking abroad for infertility treatment, while those in other countries are coming to the US to receive fertility treatments not available or legal in their country. What are the practical considerations for infertility tourism? Host Dawn Davenport will interview Kathryn Kaycoff-Manos co-founder of the Agency for Surrogacy Solutions and...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! It's hard to know when to move up the infertility treatment ladder from Clomid, to IUI (artificial insemination), to IVF, to IVF/ICSI, to donor egg, to surrogacy. When should you move to more advanced forms of fertility treatment/assisted reproduction? Host Dawn Davenport will interview Dr. Jaime Knopman, Reproductive Endocrinologist with RMA of New York and Ass...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Most children adopted from US foster care are eligible for an monthly adoption subisdy and other benefits from the state. What benefits are available? College tuition, medical insurance, monthy stipend? What is reasonable? Our guests are Josh Kroll, Project Coordinator with the Adoption Subsidy Resource Center at the North American Council on Adoptable Children and  ...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! We tell people to work through their grief at not having a biological child or being pregnant or breastfeeding BEFORE they adopt. The reality is that sometimes after adopting a baby adoptive parents still crave the experience of pregnancy and still feel sad at not having a genetic connection to their child. Host, Dawn Davenport , will interview Carole Lieber Wilkins,...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! How can integrative medicine be used in fertility treatment? What alternative treatments work to increase your chance of success with infertility? What complimentary medicine techniques can help when trying to conceive? Our guest today to talk about integrative medicine in infertility treatment and IVF is Dr. Carmelo Sgarlata, a Reproductive Endocrinologist and the d...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Interview with Kathryn Joyce, author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, a new book that is highly critical of the evangelical orphan care and adoption movement. Joyce criticized the religious involvement in international adoption, and those who seek to adopt a US baby.  Blog summary of the show and highlights can be found here...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Should you adopt out of birth order? What risks should parents be aware of. How can adoptive parents make it easier for their children if they adopt a child older than one of their existing children. Our guest will be David Brodzinsky, Ph. D., Professor Emeritus of Clinical & Developmental Psychology at Rutgers University and currently, Research Director of the D...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! What advancements have been made in pre-implantatin genetic testing of embryos or genetic testing during pregnancy? Our guest to talk about the Latest Developments in Genetic Testing if Dr. Mark Evans, medical director at Comprehensive Genetics and Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Evans is President of the Fetal Medicine F...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Post adoption depression and parent attachment disorder are surprisingly common and seldom talked about. After all, you've tried so hard to become a parent , many adoptive parents are ashamed to admit that they are struggling. We will interview Dr. Jane Aronson,board certified general pediatrician and pediatric infectious diseases specialist, and adoption medici...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! The use of donor sperm and sperm banks has changed over the years. The men donating has also changed. Host Dawn Davenport will talk about the changes in sperm donation with Dr. Michelle Ottey, Laboratory Director and Director of Operations for Fairfax Cryobank and Cryogenic Laboratories. Male infertility, LGBT parenting, lesbians, same sex couples, single mothers, ma...

Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks! Recurrent pregnancy loss (miscarriage) is a heart break. What causes miscarriage? How can they be prevented. Our guests are Dr. Richard Scott, Founding Partner, Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey and Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; and Dr. Mark Perloe, Medical Director at Georgia Reproductive Specialists...