UNSTOPPABLE

In a heartfelt debut memoir, a Colorado kindergarten teacher tells of her determination to conceive a child in spite of an infertility diagnosis.

In 1979, Casey and her husband, Peter, were both 29 years old when she received the unwelcome news that blockage of her fallopian tubes would make it impossible for her to become pregnant. She traced the problem back to a uterine infection five years before—a complication that occurred after the implantation of an experimental contraceptive intrauterine device. At first, her doctors were sanguine; the tubes might just “pop open,” they said, with a small amount of very painful pressure. Failing that, a simple surgery would doubtless fix the problem, they asserted. Driven by a deep desire to bear and raise a child, Casey underwent eight surgeries in four years. Along the way, she faced insensitivity from physicians and friends and repeatedly endured what she calls the “knee-buckling agony of loss” as each attempt to open the blocked tubes failed; other options, such as adoption, also remained out of reach. Finally, a sympathetic doctor and an emerging field of medical technology offered the author the life and family she sought; she was approved for participation in an experimental in vitro fertilization program, and she became the mother of “Colorado’s first test-tube baby.” Casey’s narrative is intimate and revealing, and she effectively conveys her personal struggle, which included feelings of guilt and anguish over her inability to conceive through traditional methods. The text is further enriched by the author’s regular placement of informative sidebars on such topics as the history of birth control, ectopic pregnancy, and surviving the loss of a pregnancy. Overall, she recounts her story with frankness and vulnerability, catching the reader up in her story despite the fact that its outcome is revealed at the beginning.

An emotional and educational account of one woman’s journey toward motherhood.