Our New Nephew and the Story of Embryo Adoption/Donation

On Saint Patrick’s Day we welcomed our nephew into the world and his story is already a pretty incredible one.

You see, my brother and sister-in-law, Ryan and Cari, struggled with infertility for 2 years and during that time, found out that having children biologically wouldn’t be possible for them.

Despite the truth of that statement, here is my beautiful sister-in-law pregnant with their firstborn.

Confused?

After exploring their options, they decided on embryo adoption/donation.

I honestly didn’t even know this was thing and I think a lot of other people are in the same boat, so here’s how it works:

When a couple does IVF, more embryos are created than will be needed. The extras are frozen and put in storage so that the couple can use them in the future to build their family. However, often there are embryos left over when the couple decides that their family is complete and when that happens, they have a few options available to them…

They can choose to destroy the embryos, donate them for scientific research, or donate them to fertility clinics and organizations that will match them with recipient couples in need.

Once matched to an embryo, the hopeful mother will go through a series of treatments similar to IVF and the embryo is implanted in her uterus.

The baby is not biologically related to either the mother or the father — they are essentially adopting — but still get to experience pregnancy. Not only that, a little life was just hanging out in stasis and may never have come to fruition, but now he’s here! How amazing is all that??

Modern medicine is a beautiful thing at times.

If you, or someone you know, is struggling with infertility — or if you’re trying to decide what to do with your remaining embryos after completing IVF yourself — I highly recommend looking into embryo adoption/donation. It’s an incredible gift, and for couples like my brother and sister-in-law, it’s a dream come true.

I’ll share some photos of him very soon, but in the meantime, enjoy these from Cari and Ryan’s maternity session.