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A conversation with Karen Tarrazas, who shares her and her husband's challenges with infertility. We discuss the church's (lack of) response to this very important issue that impacts a significant number of women and couples. Karen also talks about her research into the topic, dealing with the patriarchy, and gives tips to individuals and churches on how to better support and serve people who deal with infertility.
Housewife
I grew up in the church. Went to Bible college expecting to you know get married and start a family. Didn't end up meeting my husband until I was 30 got married at 31 and have been dealing with infertility for 9 years now. Infertility has opened my eyes to how people on the margins have been treated and helped give me a new respect for the experiences of other minority groups. As nationalism has risen so has the hostility toward women who don't fit into the nationalist maternal role for them. The church has spent decades telling women that there purpose is to be a wife and mom and it doesn't know how to deal with women that don't fit that mold. 1 in 5 couples will deal with infertility at some point. So that means almost every church has a couple in their pews that is struggling, probably in silence due to the shame associated with it. Last year I started a project that will hopefully be published. I interviewed 17 women from across the US about their experience dealing with infertility in the church. I have over 40 hours of transcripts to work through as I work in finding themes and ideas that are common to all of us. I would like to provide a resource to churches to better minister to the couple dealing with infertility.
