Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your goodwill and willingness to be part of this circle!

The idea to initiate a circle of women and men who would support our growth, and support us in expanding our services and our outreach efforts, has been on the back burner for a while. It seems as though in the last several years, I"ve been  receiving almost daily emails from women around the US, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, England that tell me they wish they would've known about the Fertile Heart Ovum work earlier in their journeys.

As an entirely self-funded organization, we cannot compete with groups that are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies and IVF clinics. (I posted a blog about the conflict of interest in the infertility advocacy world in one of my blog entries) So, now after close to a decade and a half of providing support services, education, and resources, this feels like a ripe time to engage others in helping us insure our survival and our growth.

To give you a sense of what we were up against when we first began our advocacy mission, I'd like to share a story. In 1997 after, I completed the manuscript of Inconceivable I sent it to a healthcare provider who was on the board of directors of one of the largest advocacy groups. I was hoping for an endorsement.  She called me a few days later and said how much she loved the book. She sounded genuinely excited:

"What a great job you did. You showed quite masterfully how much a person can affect their treatment outcome."

I was delighted. "Thank you," I said, "I'd love to quote you, if you don't mind? "

"I'm sorry", she replied, "your story doesn't reflect enough the importance of mainstream medicine, and people need mainstream medicine. But I wish you the best of luck with the book."

Twelve years later advocacy groups endorse books similar to mine because it's what their members  are most interested in reading and because it's the politically correct thing to do.

But a movement toward patient-empowerment and empowerment in general has always begun with individuals rather than institutions.

Fertile Heart^TM is not an institution, it's a growing community that exists largely because of the women and men who have come to our workshops and then supported each other through our message boards and through participation in our phone circles. The funding of Fertile Heart comes from workshop and  teleconference fees as well as from sales of my books and CD's.  

I do hope that after almost a decade and a half of community building and-many, many babies whose moms tell us they wouldn't be here if not for Fertile Heart^TM-we have earned your trust and your goodwill. 

Again, I'm immensely grateful to each of you for your willingness to actively engage with me in this much needed endeavor, and look forward to building a fun, creative outreach circle.

Julia