B Bartlam | PubMed Health

PubMed1998

A right to parenthood.

Many people regard parenthood as a 'right' to which they are entitled; this right is open to debate. Infertility can provoke a life-crisis leading to profound feelings of grief, loss and isolation. Each of us, as members of society, must acknowledge the pressure that we place upon individuals to parent, and particularly upon women. Fertility nurses in particular may be caught in the middle of a potentially enormous conflict of interests between the needs and desires of patients and the service provided by the NHS. Child health nurses need to be aware that infertility and the process of fertility treatment may have a significant impact on the parents' relationship with a child born as a result of treatment.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Infertility counselling: the ISSUE experience of setting up a telephone counselling service.

This paper explores the role of telephone counselling for people experiencing fertility problems. It examines the first nine months of the evening telephone counselling service offered by ISSUE (The National Fertility Association). Records of the service were analysed for number, duration and nature of calls. The results suggest that there is significant demand for such a service and that this demand has grown in line with availability. All counsellors working on the service were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of the interviews generated key themes concerning gender and culture, supervision and training, counselling process issues, boundaries and managerial issues. In addition, specific issues about counselling in the field of reproductive medicine were highlighted. Findings are discussed in relation to implications for service provision in this area of health care.

Counseling↗