Hope & Will Have a Baby: The Gift of Egg Donation

I have two donor conceived daughters and my eldest who is 4 absolutely loves this book, she asks me to read it to her again and again. The illustrations are done in bright colors and the characters have cute, easy to remember names. I think the story explains being donor conceived well to a child, I’m not sure how much of it my daughter understands yet but so far it has led to some good discussions between us. I would recommend this book as I’ve definitely found it to be a useful tool for having this conversation with my kids.

My just turned 4 year olds love this book being read over and over. The story is a lovely one and suitable for couples to help explain to their little one how their child came to be. Highly recommended to anyone who used sperm donation and is in a a traditional family unit (mum,dad, child). Would think this book could be used for children 3 and up.

The story was very thorough, but did not work in our family's situation. It does not work for LGBTQ+ families, single parents, anonymous donors, or those who are not religious (there were a couple mentions of the child being a "gift of God"). I had purchased to help explain our story to our child, but unfortunately we would need to change quite a bit to do so.

It fit our story pretty well. No other books came close. I’m leaving out somebody of the jargon (uterus and embryo for example) for now for my 4 year old. Expensive but worth it.

Good book!

Hope & Will Have a Baby: The Gift of Embryo Donation By Iréné Celcer Illustrated by Horacio Gatto Book review by Craig R. Sweet, M.D. This book is one of a collection of third party conception children's books written by the same author and illustrator and published by Graphite Press, copyright of 2006. It is one of the only books I have seen for children conceived though embryo donation. Ms. Celcer is a mental health professional that feels it is important to be up front in telling the children of embryo donation about their origin. In her forward, she cites the past secrets in adoption causing harm. She goes on suggesting that- * Children somehow sense the secrets * The failure to divulge may create shame in the parents of donated embryo offspring * Failure to tell a child results in a loss of pride of their beginnings This book is to be used to tell the children about their loving conception while trying to manage the complex emotions of the parents. Through the eyes of Hope and Will, a young married couple in love, the book explains what a "special place" the uterus is and how embryos are created. Hope and Will experience infertility, depression and probably some grumpiness (can you imagine?). They seek help through Dr. Quest, who gives Hope tablets, pills and shots, but to no avail. Embryo donation is discussed, explaining anonymous and open options in simple and easy to understand terms. Hope and Will conceive though embryo donation. The author emphasizes love, pride and excitement when the delivery finally takes place. Hope and Will are clearly grateful to their donor couple whom they have never met. Enough information is provided about the donors to help the child understand his origin. While perhaps a little complex for a young child of four or five, the book might work quite well for a slightly older child. The pictures are wonderful and the emphasis on love and the desire to have a child by whatever means necessary is well done. I have always suggested that if parents tell the child, they should highlight their tremendous desire to have and love that child, as well as how hard they worked to bring such a wonderful child into their home. Disclosure in embryo donation is a periodic theme of a number of my blogs. Adoption is clearly different than embryo donation. Adoption tends to be well accepted by most of the world's religions. If embryo recipients tell friends, family and their donor-conceived offspring, there may be significant repercussions. Will the recipients and offspring be criticized, ostracized or, even, excommunicated by these same people or by their own religion? Unfortunately at this time, I simply don't believe we have enough data to make a clear recommendation to embryo recipients although there is wonderful ongoing research that will hopefully help to answer this question. For now, extrapolating what we have learned from adoption may simply not be appropriate for embryo donation, although passions on both sides of this issue abound. The long-term consequences of secrecy vs. total openness to friends, family and the child of embryo donation are essentially unknown and I feel this decision needs to be made carefully with consultation with skilled mental health professionals (and Ms. Celcer is one of them), reproductive endocrinologists and perhaps, most importantly, recipients that have already traveled this journey. The purchaser should know this is a paperback and only 28 pages. The reader is clearly paying for the content and not story length or volume. I highly recommend this book for those parents who decide to tell their child they were conceived through embryo donation, although the story line may need to be changed for single women and gay and lesbian couples. For the lucky parent(s) of embryo donation, this is a fairly good place to start if disclosure is the path they choose to follow. Craig R. Sweet, M.D. Founder, Medical & Practice Director Embryo Donation International

Well written, unsentimental but endearing book for childen 6+ conceived via embryo donation into heterosexual couple family. Recommended.

She loves it.

The book was really good😁 and I enjoyed knowing how j was born to and I rate this book 5 stars well done for your amazing book

One of the only children's books I have found on DI, cute story and nice clear illustrations but it would have been better without the religious tone, I just took a Sharpie to it and fixed it for our family.

Although it's generally well written, a couple of aspects of the story don't sit well with us, so we wont be sharing it with our child. First, it describes getting lots of information about the donor such as hobbies and sports interests. We used an anonymous donor, so we don't have this information. It also describes the child as being a gift from god. We aren't religious so this isn't our view. I wish that would have been disclosed about the book as we wouldn't have bought it.

A little long to read to a baby/toddler/child.