The Little Embryo That Could: Conquering Genetic Termination, Secondary Infertility, and Other Setbacks

A story of love, hope, humor, heartache, and perseverance for anyone dealing with infertility.

Suzanne Rhodes, the mother of two healthy daughters, desperately wanted a third child to complete her family. Simple enough . . . until results of her amniocentesis confirmed her much-desired baby had trisomy 13, a severe genetic defect that damages the entire genetic coding and propagates throughout every organ system in the body.

Little did Suzanne know that the resulting pregnancy termination was only the beginning of a four-year struggle. Over many months, she endured numerous tests, suffered recurrent pregnancy loss, tried in vitro fertilization and assisted reproductive technology, and was diagnosed with secondary infertility. As Suzanne struggled with depression, marital stress, and feelings of failure, she never gave up hope of having another baby. Suzanne experienced a roller coaster of hope and heartbreak through multiple pregnancy attempts and disappointments, which she shared in regular posts on fetal abnormality and infertility support-group message boards. By weaving her infertility struggles with sometimes-humorous events of daily life, she illustrates how tenacity and an indomitable human spirit in the face of depression and multiple adverse life events eventually led to her son’s birth when she was thirty-nine.

The first memoir to include information about genetic termination due to trisomy 13, five recurrent miscarriages, assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures, and detailed descriptions of in vitro fertilization (IVF), The Little Embryo That Could will encourage, support, and inspire women who have undergone pregnancy terminations due to fetal anomalies and those who have experienced recurrent pregnancy loss in the form of secondary infertility.