While the holiday season is a time for family and togetherness, it is also a time filled with all things relating to children—holiday cards and social media posts featuring families and new babies, TV commercials and other advertisements depicting children and babies and the magic and spirit of the season. The desire for a child is a strong, preoccupying need even during the usual day-to-day. During the holidays that need can be even more acute and painful—a time that can make those struggling with infertility want to hop on the first flight out of town abandoning the good cheer and family gatherings all together. But it is also a season of hope and at Hanabusa IVF we see reasons to stay hopeful everyday, particularly as new research and advances in infertility treatments are helping to start new families. But to help you navigate through this holiday season, we’ve culled some suggestions for how to cope with infertility during the holidays:
Find a support group.
If you are not already part of an infertility support group, the holiday season might be a good time to consider joining one. We recommend Women’s Holiday Infertility Support Group, run by Rachel Rabinor, LCSW and licensed therapist, who takes a mind-body approach to coping with infertility. The group meets on Tuesday through January 2nd.
Women’s Holiday Infertility Support Group
http://www.rachelrabinor.com/holiday-infertility-support-group/
Learning to say no.
Protect yourself from gatherings that may trigger feelings of envy and longing or may simply be too emotionally taxing to deal with. The Fertility Authority offers some advice on how to “Just Say No” along with other pointers like reaching out to your support system.
https://www.fertilityauthority.com/articles/top-5-ways-cope-infertility-over-holidays
Practicing Self-Care
Resolve, The National Infertility Association also offers some wonderful tips for surviving the holidays while struggling with infertility such as planning time with friends and family who do not have children. Check out their other self-care tips here:
https://resolve.org/support/managing-infertility-stress/tips-for-handling-holidays/
FertilityIQ also has some excellent ideas and advice on how to deal with holiday cards and social media along with other suggestions such as booking travel with insurance to deal with the unpredictability of IVF and practicing self-compassion.