Motherhood and Infertility in Ireland: Presence of Absence

Acknowledgements

It is a daunting task to try to adequately acknowledge all the people who provided support and inspiration for the work that has resulted in this book. I apologise if I have failed to mention people who were instrumental in the project or its vision in some way. First, I must acknowledge that without the people in Ireland who have faced infertility and its challenges and were willing to share their stories this book would not have been written. I thank all my research participants for their generosity and courage. Your stories of overcoming those challenges and of finding new meanings in the role of motherhood inspired me to take my research and the book in different directions. I hope I have represented your lives and experiences adequately and with the respect you deserve. I thank the clinicians and professionals from various clinics who shared their perspectives. I also acknowledge the support and steadfast dedication of the National Infertility Support and Information Group (NISIG) who provided information, encouragement and context for the research. This book has come about with the help of many other people in the world of academia. I was always a bit of a reluctant academic and found encouragement from many of my teachers at the University of Regina and Memorial University of Newfoundland. I want to thank Dr Robin Whitaker, Dr Sharon Roseman and Dr Fern Brunger for their generous and invaluable advice, mentorship and support as members of my dissertation committee. I also acknowledge the late Dr Peter Hart for his support on my committee. In our last conversation together, he encouraged me to develop a book from the dissertation. Dr Robin Whitaker took me on as a graduate student even as my interests were somewhat less political than her own. I thank you for taking up the challenge Robin. We made it work. I also thank all the faculty, staff and fellow graduate students of the Anthropology Department of Memorial University for academic and collegial support. I also thank the funding agencies who supported my work. My PhD studies were supported by an F.A. Aldrich Scholarship from Memorial Acknowledgements ix University and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award. I also received a Wenner Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant to support the research in Ireland. My thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their comments on an early draft of the book. A very abridged version of chapter 5 was published as an article titled ‘Grieving Conceptions: Making Motherhood in the Wake of Infertility in Ireland’ in the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative. 1(2): 201–214 (2010). I thank everyone involved in the publication of material from my research. I appreciate the patience of Mike Collins and Maria O’Donovon at Cork University Press. Most of all I thank my family for being patient, supportive and loving. My parents, Murray and Doreen MacKay, taught me that life is a journey worthy of constant exploration and never to fear change. My husband, David Allison, shares my thirst for new roads and adventures. He has encouraged me to pursue my dreams and always believed in me. My children, Alex, Duncan, Charlotte and Brendan, have been a source of joy and strength and the reason motherhood and family were such important subjects to explore. They endured my PhD studies and the writing of this book. They have been my inspiration. x Motherhood and Infertility in Ireland ...