One of the most beautiful and rewarding things about being a woman is the ability to have a baby – to feel life grow from within and bring a baby into this world to care for and love. So when you struggle to conceive, imagine the heartache and frustration one must feel. According to Redbook magazine, one in eight women in the U.S. will suffer from infertility, and black women are 1.5 times more likely to experience infertility. This is a heart-wrenching experience that hits home for me and many other woman, including celebrities. They ride the same emotional rollercoaster of fertility treatments – from metformin and Glucophage to IVF in an attempt to conceive. Let’s look at 15 starlettes who’ve dealt with this issue firsthand, fearlessly opening up to the public.

Image Source: WENN.com

Mariah Carey

Singer Mariah Carey miscarried and quickly sought treatment for infertility. Carey went on progesterone every month, even through the first 10 weeks of her pregnancy. This treatment helped reduce the risk of miscarriage by half, and eventually she welcomed twins Roc and Roe in 2011 .

Even the most well-known and liked celebrities in Hollywood have faced challenges like the rest of us. For some celebs it’s drug or alcohol addictions, for others it’s medical problems like fertility issues. However, troubles conceiving weren’t enough to stop these now celebrity parents from expanding their families. Here are 14 celebrities who used a surrogate to carry their baby for them.

FayesVision/WENN.com

Angela Bassett & Courtney B. Vance

For years Angela Bassett and her husband struggled to get pregnant and even after undergoing infertility treatment for seven years, the couple was still unable to conceive. But this didn’t stop them from starting a family of their own. In 2006, the proud parents welcomed fraternal twins named Slater and Bronwyn.

Ivan Nikolov/WENN

Before you all get mad at me, let me point out that “Bey season” has officially begun and there will likely be a rise in talks about Beyonce. Just bare with us, okay? This is entertainment news and Bey is…an entertainer. Still mad at me? Well, I tried. Let’s move on!

We’re starting to hear more and more about Beyonce’s documentary Life Is But A Dream which will premiere in February on HBO.  USA Today was able to get an advanced screening and apparently, Bey decided to be extremely candid when speaking about pregnancy. By now, most of us have seen the trailer for the doc and know that we get a quick glimpse of her belly in the very early stages of her pregnancy with now one year old Blue Ivy.

But it goes deeper than that. She speaks on her miscarriage and how one week there was a heartbeat and the next week, she heard nothing.  If you recall, we first learned about the Carters’ miscarriage on Jay-Z’s song dedicated to Blue, “Glory.” Beyonce says the studio became an outlet for her to deal with the loss.

Oh and about that rumor that she didn’t actually have a baby? Here’s what Bey had to say:

“There’s a stupid rumor. The most ridiculous rumor I think I’ve ever had about me. It’s crazy. To think I would be that vain – I respect mothers and women so much and to be able to experience bringing a child into this world, if you’re lucky and fortunate enough to experience that, I would never, ever take that for granted. It’s the most powerful thing you can do. Especially after losing a child, the pain and trauma from that just makes it mean so much more to get an opportunity to bring life into the world. It seems like people should have boundaries.”

I’m sure this does nothing for those of you who believe she didn’t carry Blue but she’s finally addressed it directly.

It’ll be interesting to see what else she has to say or share because as we learned in the GQ interview, she is filmed 16 hours a day.  As much as people may love her, the struggle in her fame is that people still don’t feel like they know her and I’m not exactly sure the filming schedule will make her seem more believable. Still, there’s got to be something in all that footage that makes her feel more relatable, right?

Life Is But A Dream premieres on HBO on February 16th at 9pm.

Source: valawyersweekly.com

From Your Tango.com

By Christina Farrell

The size of my jeans used to determine my self-esteem. The shape of my body represented my deepest insecurities. A taut tummy signified my need for approval, while a muffin top indicated I’d been drowning my sorrows with food. For years, my fluctuating weight determined my self-worth. Hypocritically, I’d tout a different message. “Beauty is not defined by a dress size,” I’d say, exalting the splendor of women in all shapes and sizes. Somehow, I was unable to see beauty in myself.

Then, last year, a week after Mother’s Day, I finally figured out what authentic beauty was. On May 16th, 2011, I gave birth to and subsequently lost my daughter during my fifth month of pregnancy. During my pregnancy, I gleefully packed on 30 pounds, feeling plump and beautiful. My extraordinary weight gain became a thing of humor. I called myself the clumsy walrus on a daily basis.

For the first time in my life, the weight gain represented something wonderful. My wobbly bits and jiggly parts were bursting with mommy-to-be pride. Yes, I had the prized pregnancy glow. And yet, the day after I lost Mia, my newly round body symbolized loss. I was trapped in a larger body that was a constant reminder of the emptiness that surrounded me. What was once 30 pounds of pregnancy jubilation was now a daily memento of grief.

Read the rest of this woman’s story at YourTango.com. 

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Although news of Beyonce and Jay-Z’s new baby daughter Blue Ivy has been the talk of the country in the past few days, news about Beyonce’s miscarriage is also making news. In Daddy Jay’s song “Glory,” he revealed that he and his wife  went through a prior and painful miscarriage.

Along with the celebratory news, Beyonce’s experience of miscarriage is shining much-needed light on an issue that affects so many women. Here are some facts to know about miscarriage.

1. The chances of having a miscarriage for healthy women is between 15-20%.

2. The chances of having a miscarriage increases with age with women between 35-45 having a 20-35% chance of miscarriage.

3. A woman who has experienced miscarriage has a 25% chance of having another miscarriage.

4. Miscarriages are caused by chromosomal abnormalities, which makes avoidance something that women can’t control. But doctors do agree that being healthy and getting healthy does improve chances of a successful pregnancy.  Some health initiatives include exercising, taking folic acid daily, and eliminating smoking and alcohol consumption.

5. There are many types of miscarriage from a “threatened miscarriage” to a “missed miscarriage,” which range in severity and pain.

6. Miscarriages can not only be physically painful but also emotionally excruciating. It is critical that women impacted by miscarriage seek out support from family, friends or the medical community in order to regain confidence and be able to try again with a healthy perspective.

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Barely a day out the womb and hip hop royalty’s daughter is already a recording artist. Jay Z didn’t waste any time getting into the studio to record his thoughts on his new baby girl on the song “Glory” and you can even hear his daughter crying in the background at the end of the track.

The emotional song talks about Jay’s excitement as a proud papa and the sadness of Beyonce having a miscarriage before giving birth to Blue Ivy Carter Jan. 8.

Here are a few of the lyrics. Listen to the full track below:

The most amazing feeling I feel
Words can’t describe what I’m feeling is real
Baby I’ll paint the sky blue, my greatest creation was you
False Alarms and false starts
All made better by the sound of your heart
All the pain of the last time
I prayed so hard it was the last time
Your mama said you danced for her
Did you wiggle your hands for her

Last time the miscarriage was so tragic
We was afraid you’d disappear
But nah baby you magic.

What do you think about the song?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Condoms, birth control pills, the coil, progesterone injections, and even implants can stop Gemma Potter from getting pregnant. The 23-year-old has conceived six times in five years, and is currently a mother of three with one on the way.

Although it only takes “one time” to get pregnant, Potter says she and her husband, Glenn, only had sex three times since September for fear that she would end up pregnant, and it still happened. She’s accused doctors of not taking her pregnancy woes seriously, considering the contraception journey she’s been on.

Potter was on the pill when she met her husband in May 2006, but she ended up pregnant three months later. She went back on the pill in May 2007, but by August she was pregnant again with her second child. Four weeks after her daughter was born, doctors told her to try the coil, saying it is the most effective form of contraception. She had it fitted in June 2008, but became pregnant again by November 2008. This time she miscarried at six weeks.

Switching to a contraceptive injection that was administered every 12 weeks didn’t help either. Potter had her second daughter after getting married in 2009. Next, she tried an implant which is said to be 99% effective, yet she still wound up pregnant and miscarried at 11 weeks. Now, back on the pill, Potter is 10 weeks pregnant again.

“I love my children but I don’t want any more. Unfortunately, termination just isn’t an option for us as it is not something I agree with,” she says.

“I can’t go out with my friends or have a drink because I am constantly pregnant. I have also completely missed out on having a job or any kind of career on my own.”

The financial burden of the children could also prove difficult down the line, she says.

“Thinking of other people that can’t have children makes me feel awful. Some people can try for years and years and it’s just not meant to be whereas I can’t stop getting pregnant.

“If I keep having children and it gets to the stage that I can’t afford them any more I would consider surrogacy.”

Maybe Potter needs to go back to the basics with the rhythm method or double up with perhaps a condom and another form of birth control. At this point, even a vasectomy or tubal ligation should be in order.

Have you ever heard of anything like this?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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There’s a certain glowing beauty about a woman who is with child. It’s a precious time of choosing names and decorating nurseries, but more than that, it is a time in a woman’s life that is filled with excitement and joy.  With all of the challenging bodily changes you’re experiencing and every developmental milestone occurring to the life growing inside of you, it can be a frightening experience to believe that your pregnancy is progressing any less than perfect.  Unfortunately, sometimes things can go very wrong, and although there is no exact way to prepare for the pain, you can be aware of warning signs of complications and find ways to move past especially difficult circumstances.

Miscarriages can generally be described as a spontaneous termination of pregnancy.  Miscarriages affects up to 25 percent of all women and typically happen between four and six weeks.  Miscarriages can happen for a variety of reasons including fetal abnormalities or the egg attaching in the wrong area in the first place.  Recent studies have shown that many miscarriages that occur early can in no way be prevented by the mother.

Miscarriages can occur between the fourth and sixth months of pregnancy and are usually caused by abnormalities present within the mother such as chronic illnesses like lupus, diabetes, fibroids, or the abuse of nicotine, alcohol or other harmful substances.  Symptoms of a miscarriage include moderate or severe spotting within the early weeks of pregnancy, severe abdominal pain, passing anything that resembles tissue during your pregnancy or the sudden absence of pregnancy symptoms like nausea or breast tenderness.  Trust your intuition; you know your body best and if you have the slightest suspicion that anything isn’t quite right, you should seek medical treatment.