Introduction

Abstract

I am sure many people are curious as to what drove us to write this book. Aside from a strong academic interest in the lives of women, there is also a deep personal motivation for us to undertake this task. In truth, we come from two very different places; one of us is childless by choice, while the other has battled with infertility since her early 30 having undergone several in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments and two miscarriages. Usually these two sides do not find much common ground, often regarding each other from across the “fertility trenches” with suspicious eyes. Yet, in reality, these two positions as childless women, in a society that venerates motherhood, share more commonalities than could have been expected.