"It’s not that motherhood is out of reach, it’s that it’s just out of reach. It’s not that motherhood didn’t happen, it’s that it almost did and, in fact, still could. The difference between the grief of infertility and other reasons for mourning ‒ the loss of a spouse, for example ‒ is in that promise of ‘just,’ in ‘almost,’ in ‘still could.”"
- Alexandra Kimball
Gratitude
"Is there any point in breathing if this is what the world is asking me to face?’ You think to yourself. Somehow though, whether through madness or magic, you find a way to. You keep breathing even when you don’t think you can. You surprise yourself."
- Jodi Sky Rogers
Resilience
"Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it."
- Barack Obama
Hope
"Something profound happens when you wake up in a calm green pasture on the other side of the treacherous storm that you thought would end you. You discover who you are beyond the unimaginable. You discover what you are made of. Suddenly, the thing that may have broken you becomes the very thing that empowers and emboldens you."
- Jodi Sky Rogers
Personal Growth
"What if infertility isn’t a war but an awakening? What if it’s not about death but about a renaissance?"
- Rekha Ramcharan
Transformation
"And you begin again and sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, but you begin again. Even though your heart is breaking, in time the sun will shine and you will begin again."
- Barry Manilow
New Beginnings
"Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."
- Shel Silverstein
Hope
"Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart."
- Roy T. Bennett
Gratitude
"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future."
- Robert H. Schuller
Strength
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
- Dale Carnegie
Perseverance
"Hope itself is like a star—not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity and only to be discovered in the night of adversity."
- Charles H. Spurgeon
Hope
"Hope is an embrace of the unknown."
- Rebecca Solnit
Hope
"Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day."
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Hope
"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."
- Desmond Tutu
Hope
"It is because of hope that you suffer. It is through hope that you’ll change things."
- Maxime Lagacé
Hope
"Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do."
- H. Jackson Brown
Courage
"Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops… at all."
- Emily Dickinson
Hope
"There is purpose in your season of waiting."
- Megan Smalley
Hope
"We all slip somewhere near in space, but almost never cross paths. It is a beautiful, well-groomed woman standing at the counter and selling jewelry to you. It is a girl running a flower stall. It is your neighbor who greets you daily in the lift. It is a woman who works with you in an office. It is your French teacher. It is an Instagram girl who moved to live by the sea. It is the girl who sat next to you in the underground. It is a woman who just walked past you on the street. It is a relative with whom you haven’t been speaking for ten years. These infertile women are among us. This woman is me."
- Karina Savaryna
Awareness
"Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Give every opportunity a chance, leave no room for regrets."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Growth
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
- Confucius
Resilience
"Don’t compare your struggles to anyone else’s. Don’t get discouraged by the success of others. Make your own path and never give up."
- MJ Korvan
Motivation
"'Hope' is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all -"
- Emily Dickinson
Hope
"You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Taking Risks
"You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt with. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding."
- Cheryl Strayed
Resilience
"Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will. Sometimes you'll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you'll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room."
- Cheryl Strayed
Healing
"I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me."
- Cheryl Strayed
Courage
"Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can't cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It's just there, and you have to survive it. You have to endure it. You have to live through it and love it and move on and be better for it and run as far as you can in the direction of your best and happiest dreams across the bridge that was built by your own desire to heal."
- Cheryl Strayed
Resilience
"When you recognize that you will thrive not in spite of your losses and sorrows, but because of them, that you would not have chosen the things that happened in your life, but you are grateful for them, that you will hold the empty bowls eternally in your hands, but you also have the capacity to fill them? THE WORD FOR THAT IS HEALING."
- Cheryl Strayed
Healing
"Being human is not hard because you're doing it wrong, it's hard because you're doing it right. You will never change the fact that being human is hard, so you must change your idea that it was ever supposed to be easy."
- Glennon Doyle
Self-awareness
"It’s okay to feel all of the stuff you’re feeling. You’re just becoming human again. You’re not doing life wrong; you’re doing it right. If there’s any secret you’re missing, it’s that doing it right is just really hard. Feeling all your feelings is hard, but that’s what they’re for. Feelings are for feeling. All of them. Even the hard ones. The secret is that you’re doing it right and that doing it right hurts sometimes."
- Glennon Doyle
Self-awareness
"Grief shatters. If you let yourself shatter and then you put yourself back together, piece by piece, you wake up one day and realize that you have been completely reassembled."
- Glennon Doyle
Healing
"What I thought would kill me, didn’t. Every time I said to myself: I can’t take this anymore—I was wrong. The truth was that I could and did take it all—and I kept surviving. Surviving, again and again, made me less afraid of myself, of other people, of life."
- Glennon Doyle
Resilience
"If I were to start a file on things nobody tells you about until you're right in the thick of them, I might begin with miscarriages. A miscarriage is lonely, painful, and demoralizing almost on a cellular level. When you have one, you will likely mistake it for a personal failure, which it is not. Or a tragedy, which, regardless of how utterly devastating it feels in the moment, it also is not. What nobody tells you is that miscarriage happens all the time, to more women than you'd ever guess, given the relative silence around it."
- Michelle Obama
Adversity
"Our family may be small but it is a family built on love, resilience, and the belief that miracles are possible even in the face of "Unexplained infertility.""
- Alaina Bullock
Hope
"The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow."
- Robert Tew
Strength
"Throughout my life, there were a few hard days. Days where even when I tried to be happy, my heart still cracked, and Mother’s Day was one of those. For others, it stood as a celebration. For me, it spoke of loss and failure."
- Brittainy C. Cherry
Adversity
"Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win."
- Bernadette Devlin
Courage
"The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."
- Helen Keller
Resilience
"Women often endure infertility, pregnancy, infant loss, miscarriages, and stillbirths in isolation, because while sadness is a socially palatable response to these often life-altering events, rage, frustration, jealousy, and guilt are not."
- Soraya Chemaly
Awareness
"For so many women and not just women in the spotlight, people feel very entitled to know, ‘Do you want kids?’ A lot of people, especially people that have fertility issues, just say ‘no’ because that’s a lot easier than being honest about whatever is actually going on. People mean so well, but they have no idea the harm or frustration it can cause."
- Gabrielle Union
Awareness
"Infertility is this huge emotional roller coaster. If you want in your heart more than anything to have a baby, it’s the hardest thing you will ever go through physically, emotionally, and financially."
- Cindy Margolis
Adversity
"It is one thing, I was discovering, to think, “Maybe I won’t have kids,” and quite another to be told, “Maybe you can’t.” This is how impatience turns to desperation."
- Peggy Orenstein
Adversity
"I got some bad news today and didn’t have anyone to share it with… but I guess I gotta tell someone. To all the women out there struggling with fertility, I feel ya. The universe works in mysterious ways and sometimes it all doesn’t make sense… but I hope there’s light about to shine through all the dark clouds."
- Rebel Wilson
Hope
"Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me … Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."
- Shel Silverstein
Hope
"Making the decision to have a child — it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."
- Elizabeth Stone
Love
"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope."
- Maya Angelou
Love
"Fear never builds the future, but hope does."
- Joe Biden
Hope
"What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is the shame for being human."
- Brené Brown
Self-awareness
"When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on."
- Theodore Roosevelt
Adversity
"The darkest hours are just before dawn."
- English Proverb
Hope
"Creating a family in this turbulent world is an act of faith, a wager that against all odds there will be a future, that love can last, that the heart can triumph against all adversities and even against the grinding wheel of time."
- Dean Koontz
Faith
"Whatever the struggle, continue the climb. It may be only one step to the summit."
- Diane Westlake
Perseverance
"Making the decision to have a child—it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."
- Elizabeth Stone
Love
"Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle."
- Wilma Rudolph
Adversity
"We must let go of the life that we planned so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."
- Joseph Campbell
Adaptation
"For those who deeply want children and are denied them, those missing babies hover like silent ephemeral shadows over their lives. Who can describe the feel of a tiny hand that is never held?"
- Laura Bush
Adversity
"It is one thing, I was discovering, to think, “Maybe I won’t have kids” and quite another to be told, “Maybe you can’t.” This is how impatience turns to desperation."
- Peggy Orenstein
Adversity
"They don’t get the particular nature of this grief, how it’s less about the loss of a potential child than it is about the endless possibility that there may yet be an actual child."
- Alexandra Kimball
Gratitude
"Women often endure infertility, pregnancy, infant loss, miscarriages and stillbirths in isolation, because while sadness is a socially palatable response to these often life-altering events, rage, frustration, jealousy and guilt are not."
- Soraya Chemaly
Adversity
"Is there anyone dearer than the children of people you love, especially when you don’t have your own?"
- Lisa Unger
Adversity
"Sometimes it’s hard to see the rainbow when there’s been endless days of rain."
- Christina Greer
Hope
"There’s a unique pain that comes from preparing a place in your heart for a child that never comes."
- David Platt
Adversity
"Infertility often comes with grief and loss. You have to let go of the vision of how long the journey will be and learn to flow and become stronger through the process."
- Halle Tecco
Personal Growth
"We all slip somewhere near in space, but almost never cross paths. It is a beautiful, well-groomed woman standing at the counter and selling jewelry to you. It is a girl running a flower stall. It is your neighbor who greets you daily in the lift. It is a woman who works with you in an office. It is your French teacher. It is an Instagram girl who moved to live by the sea. It is the girl who sat next to you in the underground. It is a woman who just walked past you on the street. It is a relative with whom you haven't been speaking for ten years. These infertile women are among us. This woman is me."
- Karina Savaryna
Awareness
"For everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies. Sending you extra love."
- Anne Hathaway
Compassion
"What starts out as a dream becomes a project that’s all-consuming—everywhere you look, women are pregnant and every song on the radio seems like it’s all about being pregnant! It becomes a very frustrating, frightening place."
- Brooke Shields
Adversity
"Anyone that’s been in the place of wanting another child or wanting a child knows the disappointment, the pain and the loss that you go through trying and struggling with fertility."
- Nicole Kidman
Adversity
"Getting pregnant wasn't easy and I found that devastating. I really beat myself up for waiting so long when I’d always wanted children and family had been the basis of my happiness my whole life."
- Emily Procter
Adversity
"There are definitely times when I walked out [of the doctor’s office] hysterically crying, and other times when I was like, ‘OK, everything’s looking good—it’s going to be this month!’ The waiting and waiting has been a roller coaster."
- Kim Kardashian
Adversity
"After going through a lot of procedures and spending a lot of money, the doctor said, ‘Look, based on what we’re seeing here, I just don’t think this is going to happen for you.’ The hardest part is I really love my husband—he’s such a good person and he would be such a great father. But we just decided it wasn’t worth it to go through that and so we decided to stop. It was better to not go through that torture."
- Aisha Tyler
Adversity
"I got some bad news today and didn't have anyone to share it with... but I guess I gotta tell someone. To all the women out there struggling with fertility, I feel ya. The universe works in mysterious ways and sometimes it all doesn’t make sense... but I hope there’s light about to shine through all the dark clouds."
- Rebel Wilson
Hope
"It was a womb issue for me. Embryos wouldn’t implant. [Surrogacy is] a big leap, inviting this person into your life to do this amazing, important thing for you. And it’s hard losing that kind of control. But our surrogate is so extraordinary and she’s still in our lives. She’s like an auntie."
- Elizabeth Banks
Adaptation
"John and I were having trouble. We would have kids five, six years ago if it had happened, but my gosh, it’s been a process! We’ve seen fertility doctors and then once you open up about all those things to other people, you start learning that a lot of other people in your life are seeing these people and they have this shame about it."
- Chrissy Teigen
Adversity
"We tried to have another child, it didn’t work and I went into a deep clinical depression. It’s only now that I no longer count other people’s children or judge myself harshly for not providing my daughter with a sibling."
- Emma Thompson
Adversity
"After trying and trying, I, unfortunately, couldn’t have my babies. It was my reality. I heard about the surrogate option and it worked out beautifully."
- Angela Bassett
Adaptation
"For so many women and not just women in the spotlight, people feel very entitled to know, ‘Do you want kids?’ A lot of people, especially people that have fertility issues, just say ‘no’ because that's a lot easier than being honest about whatever is actually going on. People mean so well, but they have no idea the harm or frustration it can cause."
- Gabrielle Union
Adversity
"[We] tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to get pregnant, but it just was not [meant] to be the conventional way. Meeting your children [through surrogacy] rather than giving birth to them, it’s suspended animation. The gestational experience is gone. It’s as if everything else disappears for a moment and the world goes silent."
- Sarah Jessica Parker
Adaptation
"I know people have tried much longer [than we have], but if there’s anyone out there who is trying and they’re just losing hope… just hang in there. Try every avenue. Try anything you can do, ‘cause you’ll get there. You’ll end up with a family and it’s so worth it."
- Jimmy Fallon
Hope
"I’ve had some not happy moments with [ IVF], very traumatic moments. [Getting pregnant is] difficult as you get older. It’s not something that can just happen."
- Tyra Banks
Adversity
"Infertility is this huge emotional roller coaster. If you want in your heart more than anything to have a baby, it's the hardest thing you will ever go through physically, emotionally and financially."
- Cindy Margolis
Adversity
"The English language lacks the words to mourn an absence. For the loss of a parent, grandparent, spouse, child or friend, we have all manner of words and phrases, some helpful some not. Still we are conditioned to say something, even if it is only “I’m sorry for your loss.” But for an absence, for someone who was never there at all, we are wordless to capture that particular emptiness. For those who deeply want children and are denied them, those missing babies hover like silent ephemeral shadows over their lives. Who can describe the feel of a tiny hand that is never held?"
- Laura Bush
Adversity
"I am learning to trust the journey even when I do not understand it."
- Mila Bron
Faith
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible"
- Audrey Hepburn
Motivation
"A strong woman looks a challenge dead in the eye and gives it a wink."
- Gina Carey
Courage
"Learn to trust the journey even when you don’t understand it."
- Mila Bron
Faith
"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Resilience
"It always seems impossible until it’s done."
- Nelson Mandela
Courage
"She is brave and strong and broken all at once."
- Anna Funder
Strength
"Even miracles take a little time."
- The Fairy Godmother, Cinderella
Hope
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
- A.A. Milne
Belief in Self
"No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true."
- Cinderella
Hope
"Our fate lives within us; you only have to be brave enough to see it."
- Merida
Courage
"The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it."
- Rafiki, The Lion King
Learning from Mistakes
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will."
- Karim Seddiki
Courage
"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."
- Nora Ephron
Empowerment
"Life is tough, my darling, but so are you."
- Stephanie Bennett Henry
Strength
"Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.’"
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Courage
"Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s fine. It’s not their journey to make sense of. It’s yours."
- Zero Dean
Self-awareness
"People cry not because they’re weak but because they’ve been strong for too long"
- Johnny Depp
Strength
"You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice."
- Bob Marley
Strength
"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Faith
"Just because your path is different doesn’t mean you’re lost."
- Gerard Abrams
Self-confidence
"Hope is the only thing stronger than fear."
- President Snow
Hope
"If you focus on what you left behind, you will never be able to see what lies ahead."
- Ratatouille
Awareness
"All it takes is faith and trust and a little bit of pixie dust"
- Peter Pan
Faith
"You always pass failure on your way to success."
- Mickey Rooney
Success
"Even gatherings like Thanksgiving, Christmas, friends or relatives’ baby showers and so on can be challenging for people struggling with infertility. Reach out to them, encourage them to speak out, to help ensure them that they’re not alone."
- Navya Muralidhar
Empowerment
"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."
- Dalai Lama
Inner Peace
"Every cloud has a silver lining."
- John Milson
Optimism
"The world was selfish, unjust. How could so many undeserving people be given the opportunity to raise children they didn’t even want while so many worthy individuals didn’t get the chance?"
- Brittainy C. Cherry
Adversity
"They wondered about IUI and IVF. If fertilization happens in a lab, is the child still created out of love? . . . They came to see that assisted reproduction is still an act of love, albeit a less conventional one than 'making love' to have a baby."
- Rachel HS Ginocchio
Love
"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears."
- Nelson Mandela
Motivation
"Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body."
- Ina May Gaskin
Self-improvement
"She who is brave is free."
- Seneca
Bravery
"As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens on its own."
- Denis Waitley
Growth
"A goal without a plan is just a wish."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Goals
"Just keep swimming."
- Finding Nemo
Perseverance
"He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD. Psalm 113:9"
- Lailah Gifty Akita
Faith
"A great adventure is about to begin."
- Winnie the Pooh
New Beginnings
"There is more to life than just your fertility."
- Alaina Bullock
Awareness
"Parenting begins the moment you make any conscious effort to care for your own health in preparation for enhancing your child’s conception."
- Carista Luminare-Rosen
Responsibility
"A blessed home is not a home full of kids, but a home where there is peace, harmony and understanding."
- Michael Bassey Johnson
Peace
"The most alluring thing a woman can have is confidence."
- Beyonce
Self-confidence
"I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it."
- Art Williams
Motivation
"Those were painful times, but that particular longing was only one small part of the much bigger life I have shared with Francis."
- Kim Fay
Adversity
"It's almost as if - in being childfree yourself - you become everybody else's child: someone who needs taking care of, who needs guiding in the right direction, who doesn't quite understand, but bless her she's trying"
- Elizabeth Day
Compassion
"Having a baby is one of the best parts of life' she says. 'But still. It's only one of them."
- Megan Angelo
Hope
"Biology creates males and females. Pollution creates infertility in them."
- Steven Magee
Environment
"If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun."
- Katharine Hepburn
Boldness
"The strongest women become the strongest mothers before their children are even conceived."
Strength
"Your worth is not determined by your fertility."
Self-esteem
"Be strong because things will get better. It may be stormy now, but it never rains forever."
Failure
"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it."
Persistence
"It’s the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee."
Motivation
"The longer you wait for something, the more you’ll appreciate it when you get it. Because anything worth having is definitely worth waiting for."
Gratitude
"What feels like the end is often the beginning."
New Beginnings
"It’s hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; It’s even hard to give up when you know it’s everything you want."
Adversity
"I’m not telling you it's going to be easy, I’m telling you it's going to be worth it."
Motivation
"I’m thankful for my struggle because without it I wouldn’t have stumbled across my strength."
Gratitude
"You were given this mountain to show others it can be moved."
Strength
"Infertility is a loss. It's the loss of a dream. It's the loss of an assumed future. And like every loss, it will be grieved."
- Unknown
Adversity
"It’s frustrating to watch everyone else’s dreams come true while knowing your own are slipping farther and farther away from becoming reality."
Adversity
"There is nothing more disappointing than feeling ready and then looking down at a negative pregnancy test."
Adversity
"Shout out to all of us fighting a battle most people don’t understand. Keep hanging in there."
Perseverance
"It starts to hurt the most when you have to start pretending it doesn’t."
Adversity
"Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to. It’s not for them."
Self-awareness
"Infertility is a loss. It’s the loss of a dream. It’s the loss of an assumed future. And, like every loss, it will be grieved."
Adversity
"It’s hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; It’s even harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want."
Adversity
"It’s going to be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end."
Hope
"And sometimes against all odds, against all logic, we still hope."
Hope
"I will not let the stress of infertility overtake my life."
Self-care
"A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles"
Gratitude
"There’s no telling how many miles you have to run while chasing a dream."
Ambition
"Sometimes the struggle is what makes success even sweeter."
Overcoming Obstacles
"A little progress each day adds up to big results."
Achievement
"Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them."
Empowerment
"No matter where you’re at in your fertility journey, know that you are surrounded by a community of support. Get in touch with other women like you here on Peanut. You are not alone."
Empowerment
"A baby fills a place in your heart that you never knew was empty."
Love
"Don’t expect everyone to understand your journey, especially if they’ve never had to walk your path."
Awareness
"The littlest feet make the biggest footprints in our hearts."
Love
"The greater the storm, the brighter the rainbow."
Hope
"The struggle is part of the story."
Adversity
"Strong women aren’t simply born. They are made by the storms they walk through."
Strength
"When the world says, ‘give up,’ hope whispers, ‘try one more time.’"
Hope
"The infertility symbol is a pineapple because it is a powerful shape that reminds women to stand tall and strong while staying sweet and loving on the inside."
Strength