This week is a special week for us here at Addison Bay. We are celebrating and honoring women and families who have struggled with Infertility. From April 21st to April 29th is National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW), with the goal of this week being to bring awareness and light to infertility and help couples and families who have been affected by infertility. This holds a special place in our hearts because our Founder and CEO, Marguerite Adzick, has had an extremely personal journey with infertility.
Did you know that AB came from successful fertility treatments? I had the idea for Addison Bay for several years prior to launching the company in 2018. For two years prior to starting AB, I was trying to get pregnant and going through fertility treatments. Hundreds of doctors appointments and several rounds of IVF later, I got pregnant with my beautiful daughter. Once I made it to the second trimester, I immediately felt a rush of relief and excitement. Fertility treatments are a time intensive process and I finally felt like I had the time and energy to put towards building Addison Bay. While most women may settle into their pregnancy, I chose to use the newfound time to start writing a business plan and pitching the idea to investors and get the company off of the ground. I resigned from a job that I loved at six months pregnant - I knew that I had to go for it and, ironically, it felt like the right timing. Addison Bay would never exist without my beautiful daughter and I’ve loved raising my two babies (Annie and Addison Bay) together.
Here at AB, we want to shed light on some facts and myths surrounding infertility to support and educate our community. In most basic terms, infertility refers to the inability for a woman and or couple to get pregnant after at least a year of trying. 1 in 8 couples struggle with getting pregnant and or sustaining a pregnancy. There are a combination of reasons for this, some attributed to the female partner, some to the male partner and in some cases both partners. In many cases there is medical intervention that can help to begin the pregnancy such as In Vitro Fertilization but in other cases some women remain unable to get pregnant and pursue other routes in having children such as adoption or surrogate mothers.
The National Infertility Association has created amazing resources for families struggling with infertility and created amazing campaigns advocating for this week. Now time for some fun facts! The symbol for Infertility awareness has become a Pineapple representing women struggling with this. You can find this symbol on infertility blogs, instagrams, facebook feeds, this symbol helps to unite women going through this. The pink and blue ribbons together represent Infertility and also infant loss awareness. While this is a terrible issues that affects millions of women each year, there have been many incredible and strong communities built around this bringing women together, that is what we like to see #GirlPower!
So what can you do to help? Support your loved ones, if you have friends or family members that you know are going through infertility be there to support them whether it is a shoulder to cry on or baking some cookies, getting out and going for a walk, doing some retail therapy, they will for sure appreciate it.
From the AB Team, we are here for you and honor and celebrate anyone affected by this. We hope that Marghi’s story can inspire and bring hope to others.
