In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family

Some girls dream about growing up, getting married and having babies. But what if a girl chooses a different path? What if she decides to follow her career dreams and put her family dreams on the back burner? Is she wrong? Will she miss out on the opportunity to have children?

In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family takes a look at the answers to these questions and more through the eyes of author Rachel Lehmann-Haupt and her research. After choosing to follow her career path and free spirit during her twenties and early thirties, she finds herself single in her mid-thirties headed toward 40 and begins to worry she will never have a baby. She wants to meet Mr. Right and start a family the old fashioned way but what if he doesn’t come soon? What options, if any, does she have to make having a baby possible the older she gets, with or without a husband?

The options she chooses to research and consider are egg freezing and embryo freezing (with a friend’s sperm and with sperm from a donor bank). With a career based on researching, finding and reporting facts, Lehmann-Haupt looks into these options from every angle. She meets with support groups for women who have chosen this option, talks with women who are having babies on their own using their frozen eggs, and meets with doctors in the OBGYN and egg/embryo freezing fields to see if this is her best fit. Fully supported by her family, and fully armed with a wealth of information, Lehmann-Haupt shows us that the path to a baby and ultimately a family is different for everyone.

In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family is a story/memoir as well as informational book. All of the medical information included is accurate and has been updated since the release of In Her Own Sweet Time in 2009. Lehmann-Haupt shares her very personal journey towards parenthood by telling readers the good, the bad, the sad and the perseverance one must have when faced with the reality of the life you always dreamed of and the realities of science and the female body. Her approach to this issue is unique in that someone who is struggling or even just faced with this time in their life can read this book and get factual information while also experiencing the raw emotion that a woman can face on this journey. It is definitely a great book for anyone facing this issue, or just interested in knowing that there are options for child-rearing at a later age.