What is it like to be a parent of a donor egg child?

What is it like to be a parent of a donor egg child? Taking the fear out of the experience.
– Tonya Heilbrun
Recipient Representative

I was recently asked to write a full article about what it means to be a parent via donor eggs and to specifically address the fear that can and does often occur during the experience. I found this request relatable as I will admit, I did experience fear. But, what I have learned is that my “fear” was only of the unknown and with all “unknowns” in my life, my desires always overcame.

At first, it is the inability to know what people will do, think and say. Then, it is more about what the child will think, feel and say. Finally, it is how you the parent will feel when impacted by all of these unknowns. While these are certainly valid “fears” or thoughts, what I have learned is that it was my first real experiences of being a mother. And honestly, these are only the beginning. Once you feel that baby kick – the fears quadruple as does the excitement. But most importantly – the “fear” of what will my child think is long past.

What this all boils down to in the end is our own insecurities. Let us think about the logic behind it. At first, we as women are devastated that we have been told we have bad/old eggs. As a young girl, it is just a given that most of us want to grow up to be a mother one day. This in itself is a lot to process. So we learn that we can in fact carry a child and all that we need to do is accept the fact that we will need to use a donor egg.

from The World Egg Bank http://www.theworldeggbank.com/blogs/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-parent-of-a-donor-egg-child-2/

Meet The Team-Dr. Kimball Pomeroy Scientific Director

Kimball O. Pomeroy is a clinical embryologist who has directed several clinical laboratories throughout the United States. He was trained in Bristol, England as a human embryologist and prior to that was educated at Colorado State University, where he received a Ph.D. in Animal Physiology, and then worked at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he did post-doctoral work in molecular biology. At the Salk Institute, Dr. Pomeroy was a molecular biologist and worked with Dr. Glen Evans on the Human Genome Project (chromosome 11) and did work in transgenics.

Dr. Pomeroy has worked as a consultant for several projects in Mexico, Nepal, China, Bolivia and the Bahamas. He has served as a member of the SART Executive Board, Chair of the Reproductive Laboratory Technician’s Group, Chair of the College of Reproductive Biology and a founding member of the Regulatory Task Force and the Southwest Embryologist Summit.

Dr. Pomeroy has lectured at many scientific meetings and has been involved in the organization and presentations at several symposia for the education of embryologists. He has coauthored numerous papers, mostly dealing with the detection of embryo toxins and cryopreservation. Recently he has coauthored several papers on the risks of cross-contamination of microbes during storage of tissue in liquid nitrogen, the usefulness of embryo morphology in predicting pregnancy and the source of microbial contamination during embryo culture.

To learn about other members of our team, visit our website.

from The World Egg Bank http://www.theworldeggbank.com/blogs/dr-kimball-pomeroy-scientific-director/