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My guest today shares her personal story and clinical perspective of her complicated journey into motherhood. Her story includes the support of reproductive technologies, as well as the loss of her twin daughters and the adoption of her son. Join us to hear more.\n**Today\u2019s episode covers sensitive topics of perinatal loss and pregnancy loss. Use your own judgment as to whether it\u2019s right for you or not at this time.\nJeanae Hopgood, LMFT, M.Ed, PMH-C, is an individual, couple/partner and family therapist, clinical sexologist, author, speaker, doctoral candidate, and occasional adjunct professor. Her Pennsylvania private practice centers people of marginalized identities (specifically Black and LGBTQ+). She helps them heal from family-of-origin challenges, relational difficulties, fertility and family creation processes, perinatal mental health, perinatal loss, healing and healthy sexuality, and realignment of the mind, body, and spirit. Jeanae is also the founder of the Black Angel Mom community, which includes a private Facebook community, a blog, guided journal, and conversation card deck. The card deck can be used by clinicians in therapeutic processing and discussions as a support system for their clients. Jeanae is the mother of twin daughters who have passed and one son earth-side.\nShow Highlights:\n\nHow Jeanae had a lifelong dream to be a mom but knew assisted reproductive technologies would be her route\n\nHow her next steps included multiple failed IUI cycles, fibroid-removal surgery, IVF, and a pregnancy with twin daughters\n\nHow she experienced fluid loss, both light and heavy, that prefaced the traumatic loss of both girls\n\nHow Jeanae made something beautiful out of a tragic situation in giving birth to her daughters at 16-17 weeks\n\nHow Jeanae handled the tough parts of having her daughters photographed, dealing with the funeral home, and leaving them behind when she left the hospital\n\nHow Jeanae felt anguish, despair, confusion, disconnection, and deep grief after the loss\n\nHow Jeanae knew she needed help and searched for healing through grief counseling and journaling\n\nHow Jeanae and her partner tried two more IVF cycles a few months later\u2013with no success\n\nHow even support groups didn\u2019t feel inclusive of queer Black couples\n\nWhy Jeanae created her blog to include others who didn\u2019t see themselves in the support groups that were available to them\n\nHow Jeanae and her partner were \u201ckicked out\u201d of their shared risk IVF program and were approached about the opportunity to adopt their son\n\nWhy they chose adoption, knowing this would be the end of their fertility journey; because of the expense, they knew they couldn\u2019t do both\n\nHow the adoption brought conflicting emotions and feelings about becoming a mother in this unexpected way\n\nWhy Jeanae created the Black Angel Mom community to be the support she needed\n\nA deeper look at where marginalization showed up in Jeanae\u2019s journey to parenthood as a queer Black couple\n\nResources:\nConnect with Jeanae:\xa0JHJ Therapy, Instagram, and Facebook\nBlack Angel Mom, Instagram, and Facebook