When a sonogram is nothing to celebrate

Everywhere you look, fertility is fed to women on a slow drip from the time we are old enough to actually know what it means. Babies smile at us on TV to sell visions of idyllic family life. Pregnancy is used as a 40 week joy ride into the birth canals of celebrity women we don't really know personally, but 'know' where they bought their last latte, who their gynecologist is and when they have scheduled an elective caesar. 3D ultrasounds are marketed as baby's 'first photo' and as the first step to motherhood. The point is that being a parent is a not only marked as the most formative experience in any individual life, it is a market that never dries up for big companies. As much as we love to rhaposodise on the joys of parenting, we often forget that fertility is a privilege and not a given. Sure Hallmark is happy to sell 'It's a Girl' greeting cards, but 'My Uterus is Empty' cards are nowhere to be found. Celebrities are happy to blab to the media about how much money they have spent on the nursery but no one ever wants to reveal how much money they invested in IVF.

Here is a thought-provoking article from the New York Times about one woman's experience of 'failed' fertility:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/fashion/06love.html?ref=fashion