
In her new book, “Your Future Family: The Essential Guide to Assisted Reproduction,” Kim Bergman offers people who need reproductive assistance to become parents a volume of hope and sound practicality. She says almost anyone can build a family. “Your wish can come true,” she writes. “I must warn you, however, that having a baby through assisted reproduction is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Slim at just 136 pages, the book manages to cover everything from planning to the science of conception; sperm, egg and embryo donation; surrogate screening and telling your children the truth about how they came to be. Bergman weaves in her own difficult journey to becoming a mom with her wife, Natalie. As a psychologist, Bergman specializes in the area of assisted reproduction and has worked with gay and lesbian couples, couples dealing with infertility, singles and HIV-positive people who wish to become parents.
“Creating families through [assisted reproduction] is … about love, collaboration and desire to raise a child,” Bergman writes. “I love being a mom. It’s the one thing that I always knew I wanted.”