Welcome to season 3! Today, we discuss the upcoming Season 3 and I share an important life update. In many ways, the start of Stork’d and my own family building journey have run parallel to each other.

I speak with Saundra and Susan who have built a community which they lovingly call their village family. Filled with friends, family and neighbors, the village family was composed to create a diverse and rich environment for their daughter to grow and thrive in.

I talk with Paige Pieroni about Turner Syndrome and the incredible family building journey she and her husband are on. Turner Syndrome is a genetic condition which affects female chromosomes at birth, and one of the main ways it impacts Paige is that she is unable to have children as a result of underdeveloped ovaries.

Annie shares a beautiful narrative of choosing adoption as her first priority in her family building. We hear of her experience with private domestic adoption and the joy of becoming an adoptive parent.

Aaron Kartchner about fatherhood and what it’s like to be a non-stereotypical stay at home dad. Aaron’s first daughter was born extremely premature at 27 weeks resulting in a 135-day stay in the NICU. Aaron chose to step into the role of primary caretaker.

Tara Krueger has epilepsy and shares how that has impacted the way in which she is raising her children and the family structure they have created around her epilepsy.

Gwen Dittmar shares the incredible journey of healing her body and soul through holistic medicine and how despite being told she would never have children because of PCOS, is now a mom of two.

Michael Mills and his partner pioneered the path for gay people in the UK to grow their families. They did so during a time when family building options were fairly limited in the US and almost non-existent in the UK. As a gay man, Michael always believed that having a family or children was beyond the realm of possibility.

When Tammy had to decide between staying married or not having a family, she chose divorce and received an embryo donation from her friend, Michael. Tammy’s story highlights the difficult trade-offs we often make but also reveals the beautiful experience of becoming a mom – something she had dreamed of for decades.

Ashley shares her own story of how her self care toolkit has evolved after stepping into parenthood and in the midst of a painful experience with miscarriage. Ashley reminds us what self care truly means. We can nurture ourselves, like she has done, by showing up first for yourself and then showing up for others out of the overflow of energy and capacity that self care creates.

Jordana Kier, the founder of LOLA, which is a feminine and reproductive health products company, shares her own maternity leave experience and how LOLA’s parental leave differs from other companies and benefits parents and families.