By Kimberly Tyson
1. Did you know 1 in 8 couples have been diagnosed with some type of infertility.
You are the leader of your congregation. Your members have all sorts of human issues that they seek help with from a spiritual perspective. But infertility? That’s a mighty private issue, right? It is, but people dealing with infertility are searching for answers. Embryo adoption may be the option that is right for them and now you can tell them about it!
2. In the past, the first course of action if a couple could not bear a child was adoption.
Domestic infant adoption, international adoption or foster adoption. That is no longer true. Now the first course of action is to pursue medical science solutions. This typically results in a visit to a Reproductive Endocrinologist at a fertility clinic.
Why not embryo adoption instead?
3. One of the most used infertility treatments is called in vitro fertilization (IVF).
This treatment will take eggs and sperm from the woman and the man and an Embryologist will create embryos in a laboratory using the couple’s genetics. If embryos are successfully made, one or two of them will be transferred into the woman’s womb and the remaining embryos will be frozen for future pregnancy attempts.
IVF can present a number of problems, problems you may have never thought about before.
Has the couple taken time to grieve their infertility before moving forward?
What if only 1 or 2 embryos are created from the IVF cycle and they don’t get pregnant?
Will they do another IVF cycle? Every cycle will cost $15,000-$20,000.
Did you know many families will spend $50,000 - $100,000 trying to have a genetic baby?
What will they do if more embryos are created and frozen than they end up needing for building a family?
What if eggs cannot be retrieved from the woman’s ovaries?
What if there is an issue with the man’s sperm?
Will the Reproductive Endocrinologist recommend purchasing human eggs and/or sperm?
Where will they purchase these how much will it cost?
How do they feel about creating embryos that are not genetically related to one or both of them?
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
4. You CAN give birth to your ADOPTED child!
The Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program was pioneered in 1997 by Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Embryo adoption allows the families who have remaining embryos in frozen storage (over 1,000,000 in the U.S. today) choose an adopting family who will attempt to give birth to those embryos.
In the description above you get a sense regarding the expense and difficulty couples endure using IVF. Each embryo they create they hope will become a baby. It was created for life. At Nightlight we believe that life begins at conception and we want to give each embryo placed through our Snowflakes program an opportunity to be born.
5. We want to help families yearning for pregnancy and childbirth to know that there are embryos waiting for a friendly womb through embryo adoption.
Every day the Snowflakes program receives inquiries from families interested in placing their embryos for adoption. Embryo adoption is a successful option for couples who have failed to achieve a pregnancy using IVF or other assisted reproductive technologies (ART). It is a successful option for people who DO NOT want to use IVF or other ART but DO want to experience pregnancy and childbirth.
It’s even a great option for families who want to expand their family and help an embryo be born.
How can couples choose embryo adoption if they have never heard about it? What can you do in your church to help raise awareness? Why not a short story in your church newsletter?
Snowflakes has helped over 700 babies be born into their adopting family. It allows a couple to experience pregnancy and give birth to their adopted child. Snowflakes helps babies be born who might otherwise be trapped in frozen storage.
Perhaps you know of a particular person in your church who would be delighted to carry the good word regarding embryo adoption into your congregation. We have many resources available on our website www.Snowflakes.org.
We also have people ready to listen and give clear answers at 970-693-6799 | Info@Snowflakes.org