HAVING YOUR FIRST BABY AFTER THIRTY: A Personal Journey from Infertility to Childbirth

Fuller's situation was hardly typical of women over 30--but her story registers on its own, emotional terms and offers entree to routine medical procedures for women with similar fertility problems. At 32, she was surprised by a sudden, intense desire to have a child. Previously she had been content to travel and work with her journalist-husband: 30 years her senior, and with three grown children from a previous marriage, he considered himself well finished with the baby set. Afraid even to broach the subject of a family, Fuller secretly went off the Pill; it was only six months later, after her first visit to an infertility specialist, that she realized she would have to meet the problem head on, with her husband's knowledge and support. Most of the story deals with the strain that her initial deceit, the intrusive diagnostic procedures, and sex-by-the-calendar put on their relationship. The three-year ordeal came to a satisfying happy end, however, when son Christopher finally appeared, after treatment with fertility drugs and three miscarriages, to a wholehearted fatherly welcome. Affected readers, identifying fully or not, will be encouraged to learn that the obstacles can be overcome.