Healing the pain of infertility through poetry

The experience of infertility can lead to individual emotional distress and problematic relationships. The acts of writing and reading poetry on this issue serve to synthesize and release intense emotions including loss, betrayal, frustration, and anger. The author chose to examine a number of themes both within and across poems that appeared poignant in their relationship to infertility: women's bodies, social obligations, feeling like an outsider, grief, relationship deterioration, and resolution.