https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hsm7e-113bc97
Tiffany shares her story of paternal loss, how it has shaped her life and how it fuels her advocacy work for donor conceived people.
Author, Jana M. Rupnow, LPC
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hsm7e-113bc97
Tiffany shares her story of paternal loss, how it has shaped her life and how it fuels her advocacy work for donor conceived people.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3bym9-112fc69
Freya shares her experience being raised in a two mom family, connecting with her biological father and parenting her donor conceived daughter, Birdie, with her wife.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-divex-10fe028
Romi and Britt, two moms through sperm donation, share their journey to better understanding their child’s potential perspective. Britt shares how she has worked through her vulnerabilities as the non-genetic parent and has a totally different view from when they first embarked on this journey. Romi’s lived personal experience with non-genetic family life, gives her an inside understanding of the irreplaceable role of parenting.
Update since the recording: They connected with their child’s donor.
I’m excited that you’ve joined the first Three Makes Baby Parent Workshop. Watch your inbox for emails from Jana Rupnow with details about the workshop.
4 LIVE CALLS
Dates for our fall workshop will be Oct 19, 26, Nov 2 and 9 from 6:30-7:30 pm CST (Zoom link provided in email)
Some things feel scary and with Halloween near, I thought I’d use this motto:
Don’t get scared, get skilled!
This 4-week online workshop helps you learn skills to build healthy family narratives and interactions around the topic of donor conception. I will teach a variety of skills such as how to foster open dialogue, learning to listen, learning to see through the eyes of your child, and allowing feelings. We will cover how expectations can be the enemy of growth and common questions parents have about DNA testing, telling their story, privacy vs secrecy and more. We will explore the juxtaposition of the parent and child narratives, experiences of grief and family loyalty.
Connect in small, intimate groups with other recipient parents. A supportive learning environment is my priority!
The workshop includes hard work. Its curriculum is designed to challenge you and may push you outside of your comfort zone.
During the workshop, you’re going to learn how to understand your child’s potential feelings. I’ll cover:
Learning to Listen
First, we’re going to cover learning to listen. This is important because listening is harder than we think. It requires us as parents to clear a space, basically get our junk out of the way. Here’s what you need to know about learning to listen: We have to first UNLEARN some things. We will get into that in the course.
Creating Space for Your Child’s Emotions
Next, we’ll talk about creating space for your child’s emotion. This is important because it goes beyond good listening skills. It requires some detective work. We will discuss this in our first zoom call.
Skill Development
Finally, we’ll discuss how to build skills. Skills are how we put theory into practice and we will do several practical exercises including role playing and script work to create a plan for you
The curriculum will keep evolving, growing and include controversial topics as they happen. It is led by Jana Rupnow, a clinically and personally informed perspective and author of Three Makes Baby. Information provided will be evidence-based when at all possible. Keep in mind that evidence-based information may include surveys and polls. It will be clear when it is published research vs original research.
All materials used will be owned by Jana Rupnow, through Trademark law or used with permission by the original content creator. In that case, the original content creator will be given due credit.
If you haven’t already, take the survey below to let me know what you’d like to learn. http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/96KHCGQ
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ms58e-10f2fe7
Lindsay shares difficult feelings around being donor conceived like, the guilt and divided loyalty she felt between her dad and the desire to know more about her biological father. She explains how the lack of genetic mirroring impacted her as she searched for her identity in strangers faces as a teenager. Lindsay found her biological father but still must keep his secret. She shares how being “severed” from biological family has impacted her in Part 1 of this episode.
In Part 2, we explore ideas around DNA testing and whose story it is to share.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-g32fn-1074ba2
Olivia Montuschi, co-founder of the Donor Conception Network in England, has over 35 years of experience as a parent to donor-conceived children and is the author of several resources for parents.
Olivia shares her personal story as well as the story of how the @d_c_network was born.
In this episode, she shares valuable perspectives from her interviews with donor conceived teenagers. Their perspectives were included in her latest book, Continuing the Conversation which is available for purchase through @d_c_network.
Below are my comments on her latest publication:
Continuing the Conversation, Talking with Young People and Adults 12 yrs and Up, is an invaluable resource for families with donor conceived teenagers and young adults. Applying over 35 years of experience as a parents of DC children plus interviews with 21 donor conceived teenagers, Olivia Montuschi and Jane Ellis provide readers “a look ahead” at this crucial stage of child development. Montuschi and Ellis describe common challenges and mistakes that parents of teens make, while navigating the shifting and sometimes disorienting dynamics in the parent child relationship. In addition to learning how to engage in conversation with their teens during time when teens are naturally pulling away, readers will learn more about unique issues donor conceived adolescents face as they search for genetic kin, take a DNA test for the first time or begin dating.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-shyvs-106d734
Guest, Rachel Ginnochio, a sexuality and family building educator, writer and consultant shares her work to develop education curriculum to be inclusive of the many ways that families are made. Rachel is writing a book for middle grade readers about human reproduction and family formation and is writing comprehensive lessons for high school students that go beyond basic sex education.
Rachel’s work can be found under the name Roads to Family at www.roadstofamily.com.
Music by Kevin McCleod, Half-Mystery, Podcast Host: Jana Rupnow