Embarking on the journey of donor conception is a path filled with hope, anticipation, and countless questions. For many prospective parents, understanding the nuances and complexities of this process can be daunting. Hopeful Mama created a Donor Conception Parental Book Guide that is designed to offer resources and support every step of the way.

Whether you’re just starting to explore donor conception or are well on your way to building your family, this book guide provides invaluable insights, advice, and practical tips to help you navigate this unique journey with confidence and peace of mind.

Additionally, for single mothers by choice, this guide includes books addressing the specific challenges and triumphs of embarking on this journey solo, ensuring that every reader feels supported and empowered to create the family they’ve always dreamed of.

If you are unsure where to start and would like to talk with others, consider joining one of our support groups. Check them out HERE.

Click on the book images to learn more/order your copy.

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Donor Conception Books

Telling and Talking 0-7 Years – A Guide For Parents
Written by Donor Conception Network
A range of books helping parents, or parents to be, of donor conceived children to talk to their friends, family and children about their donor conception origins. This book is for parents of children aged 0-7 years. There are other books for children aged 8-11 years, 12-16 years and 17 years and older.

 

 

Telling and Talking with Family and Friends
Written by Donor Conception Network
Telling and Talking with family & friends about donor conception. A guide for parents and would-be parents to help them share information about donor conception with their friends and family. Also available is ‘Our Family’, a book to be given to friends and family to assist in their understanding.

 

 

Stronger Than Infertility: The Essential Guide to Navigating Every Step of Your Journey
Written by Heather Huhman
This indispensable, comprehensive, and accessible reference book to infertility provides people with the tools they need to be their own best advocates as they navigate fertility treatments and highs and lows of their infertility journey.

 

 

 

Three Makes Baby Workbook: How to Prepare for Donor Conception
Written by Jana M Rupnow LPC
Prepare to Use a Donor Three Makes Baby Workbook is the companion workbook to Three Makes Baby-How to Parent Your Donor-Conceived Child. This workbook is designed to help readers work through Rupnow’s “Five Common Fears About Donor Conception”. Drawing on a more than a decade of professional experience with couples, Rupnow created twenty simple exercises to offer readers a way to identify their current attitudes, thoughts and feelings as they contemplate donor conception. In this accessible workbook, self-tests, pointed questions, and journaling will help readers learn to apply the concepts outlined in Three Makes Baby-How to Parent Your Donor-Conceived Child.

 

Three Makes Baby: How to Parent Your Donor-Conceived Child
Written by Jana M Rupnow LPC
DO YOU KNOW—Most Common Concerns Intended Parents Have about Donor ConceptionMillions of people dream of having a baby but struggle for years with infertility or seek other unconventional ways to build a family. In an era of new options in reproductive medicine, many couples are using a third person’s egg, sperm, or embryo to conceive. Having a child with another person’s genetics is complex. Couples have concerns about how donor conception will affect their future family life, especially their child. 

 

 

Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation: Second Edition
Written by Evelina Weidman Sterling and Ellen Sarasohn Glazer
Having Your Baby Through Egg Donation is a helpful, authoritative guide to negotiating the complex and emotive issues that arise for those considering whether or not to pursue egg donation. It presents information clearly and with compassion, exploring the practical, financial, logistical, social and ethical questions that commonly arise. This fully updated second edition also includes recent developments in the field, including traveling for egg donation and the emerging field of epigenetics. This book will be valued by all those considering or undergoing donor conception, as well as the range of professionals who support them, including infertility counselors, psychologists, therapists and social workers.

 

Let’s Talk about Egg Donation: Real Stories from Real People
Written by Marna Gatlin (Author), Carol LieberWilkins MFT (Author), John Hesla (Author)
Let’s Talk About Egg Donation was written by, for, and about families built through egg and embryo donation. It takes the reader on a journey–from infertility diagnosis, to pregnancy, to how to talk to your child about egg donation. Let’s Talk About Egg Donation tells true stories of real families who are parenting via egg and embryo donation. Their stories are woven throughout the book to craft an informative, easy-to-read narrative that focuses on positive language choices. This is the first book written by parents through egg donation that gives you age-appropriate scripts for how to take the scary out of talking to your kids about the special way in which they were conceived.

 


Single Mothers by Choice Books

Single Mothers by Choice: A Guidebook for Single Women Who Are Considering or Have Chosen Motherhood
Written by Jane Mattes
The first handbook for the rapidly growing number of American women choosing single motherhood, written by the director of the national organization, Single Mothers by Choice.

 

 

 

Going Solo: My Choice to Become a Single Mother Using a Donor
Written by Genevieve Roberts
Going Solo is for anyone whose life has taken an unexpected twist; for people who are interested in modern families and for those who want to take control of their life and follow their dreams of parenthood. It celebrates the fulfillment that comes from following what makes you happy, and reminds us that beauty may be found when life offers a surprise or a deviation from convention.

 

 


Compiled by Heather Kramer, Hopeful Mama Foundation Administrative Assistant
Heather Kramer is a Card Services Specialist at Veridian Credit Union and mama to a precious boy named Leighton. Heather and her husband Paul, experienced a pregnancy loss in February 2023 after suffering with secondary infertility for over two years. Wherever her journey takes her, she’s dedicated to be a beacon of hope for all mamas.
In her free time, Heather likes to spend time with her family, gardening, and crafting.