I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Marna Gatlin is an egg donation and embryo donation industry professional, and a patient advocate with a specialty in open egg donation and open embryo donation. She works to educate, support, and empower individuals in forming or adding to their family. With over 20 years as an infertility and donation professional, many refer to her as the “go to” person regarding all things egg donation and emb...

Lila Newberry Bradley is a partner in the law firm of Claiborne|Fox|Bradley|Goldman, which focuses its practice on family building through adoption and assisted reproduction. Lila is a Fellow in American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the Georgia Council of Adoption Lawyers. Lila attended the University of Georgia for both undergraduate and law school. Lila is the former director of the Atlanta...

Eric Mobley, 28, is donor conceived. He resides in Louisville, Kentucky with his husband, Jeremy, and 1 year old Yorkie, Ellie. Eric did not discover he was donor conceived until he was 26 years old and received a 23&Me kit for Christmas. Eric works in higher education admissions and loves anything Disney related. Listen to Eric as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn:  Eric has new 23&Me res...

Mark Mellinger handles all marketing and public relations functions for the NEDC and is also in charge of development efforts. His background consists of almost three decades in broadcast journalism. From 2011 to 2018, Mark served as a contributor to The Gospel Coalition, one of the world’s largest Christian websites, where he helped start TGC’s podcast operations. The National Embryo Donation Cen...

Sasha became a mom at the age of 19 and a single mother at age 23 after leaving a toxic situation. She met the love of her life in 2018 and is now happily married. Sasha and her husband have been struggling to grow their family for a few years and her daughter is impatient, asking for a sibling. Their family of three humans and two dogs enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, and spending time wi...

Born and raised in Texas, Nikki Wehmeir now lives in California -- though is very eager to move back closer to her family at some point! Nikki is an incredibly proud mother of two (an almost 22 year old daughter, Hayli, and a 13 year old son, Kaden). Nikki is completely obsessed with animals -- especially dogs. Her career has been built around the infertility field, specifically egg donation and s...

Episode 148: Surrogacy Changes Lives (and Careers) – Courtney Johnson by I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Emmy-winning host and TV personality Lilliana Vazquez is a trailblazing interviewer, style expert, and author. Capturing an audience’s attention behind the microphone, the enterprising star has curated a career that began from a small blog to being seen by millions daily on numerous platforms. Liliana opens up about her fertility experience and the struggles through IVF while navigating work, life...

Episode 146: Surprise Siblings – Larry Bruck by I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Amy Klein is the author of The Trying Game: Get Through Infertility Treatment Without Losing Your Mind, based on her New York Times "Fertility Diary" column. It took her four years, ten doctors, nine rounds of IVF and three miscarriages to have their daughter. Don't feel bad about "baby envy," or more accurately, "pregnancy envy," that ugly green monster of jealousy that rears its ugly head every...

Megan's professional experience includes health care marketing and non-profit management. She left her most recent role with Baxter Healthcare to focus full-time on the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association (RPLA). She holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. She blogs about her personal experience of recurrent miscarriage at Misbehavin...

Episode 143: Infertile Blessings – Maureen Nowak by I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Dr. Feinberg is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and serves as the REI Fellowship Program Director as well as the Medical Director for Northwestern Fertility and Reproductive Medicine. She is the Past-President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and is an Editorial Editor for Fertility and Sterility and the creator and co-host...

EM•POWER with Moxi is an organization dedicated to empowering choice and fostering understanding for all stakeholders involved in embryo donation. Maya is a California Licensed Clinical Social Worker and psychotherapist who specializes in supporting individuals and couples struggling to conceive or building their family in alternative ways. Additionally, her background in child welfare allows her...

Where do Israeli intended parents go to for surrogacy? What specific hurdles do they have to overcome? Is surrogacy widely available within Israel? And what is so drastically different between the Israeli approach to genetic parentage -- whether through surrogacy or through reproduction technologies -- and the American one? Victoria Gelfand (born and raised in Moscow, immigrated to Israel in her t...

A year after getting married, Roxy Jenkins and her husband decided to grow their family. Little did they know, the next five years would be a bumpy, winding path navigating infertility. It took seven medicated cycles, two IUIs, three retrievals and fresh transfers, and one twin miscarriage until their little Coco finally made her way into the world. The quest for a sibling has proven to be as diff...

Aden is founder of the Plan A podcast. Plan A follows Aden’s journey into becoming an independent parent. She talks with experts about everything from choosing a donor and navigating insurance to whether you really need to take prenatal vitamins and the difference between IUI and IVF. Along the way Aden shares her actual experience from asking questions and preparing to, hopefully, pregnancy and b...

MaryJane is a business professor and creator of The Biggest Ask, an educational website and blog dedicated to surrogacy. Listen to MJ as she discusses with Ellen and Jenn: • Getting pregnant easily, but then things becoming very difficult very quickly. • Being hospitalized at 24 weeks and being told she would be there for the rest of the pregnancy. • Experiencing a pre-term birth and losing her ch...

Dr. Julie Bindeman graduated from the George Washington University and is the co-owner of Integrative Therapy of Greater Washington in Rockville, Maryland. Her specialty is in the field of Reproductive Psychology, where she actively writes, lectures, and presents. She is a consultant in training in EMDR through EMDRIA. She has served on several committees within the Mental Health Professional Grou...

Trystan Reese is a transgender parent and educator based out of Portland, Oregon. He is the author of How We Do Family: From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned about Love and LGBTQ Parenthood, as well as co-author of the children’s book, The Light Of You. Listen to Trystan as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn: • The behind-the-scenes evolution of writing his first book. • Auditioning for...

Steven J. Miller obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at Northern Michigan University and is currently in the part-time MSW program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He’s been in social work since 2009, working with youth and families. Steven is an advocate for more discussion among social workers and other helping professionals about the impact of infertility on one’s ment...

Kathleen (“Casey”) Copps DiPaola, Esq. is a partner of Copps DiPaola Silverman, PLLC in Albany, New York where she focuses her practice on Adoption, Assisted Reproduction and Estate Planning & Probate. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, the President of New York Attorneys for Adoption & Family Formation and also an active member of various bar association...

Paige is a cancer survivor turned cancer advocate and mother to an energetic two-year-old son. Married in 2012, she never anticipated having to overcome a variety of obstacles to have a family. When unexplained infertility forced her to undergo multiple rounds of IVF, she never wavered. When leukemia unexpectedly struck three weeks before an embryo transfer, she kept her eye on recovering so she c...

Jessica McGaugh is an award-winning independent film director, cinematographer and editor working out of Denver, Colorado. Her work has been screened internationally including the Mumbai International Film Festival, Denver Film Festival, NDTV and Rocky Mountain PBS. Her feature films Red Pearl and Three Worlds, One Stage are distributed internationally on VOD and SVOD platforms. Jessica received a...

After completing her MBA, Eloise Drane founded Family Inceptions, a full-service surrogacy and egg donation agency. Eloise also hosts Fertility Café, an educational podcast on modern family building, and is the creator of digital courses on independent surrogacy, Surrogacy Roadmap. Eloise knows that compassion and grace are necessary ingredients for the delicate journey that egg donation and gesta...