ABSTRACT
Scholarship is increasingly acknowledging the role that narratives play in how individuals and groups construct their identities and make sense of their lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 10.8 percent of women and 7.5 percent of men in the United States have sought infertility treatment. Advances in medical technology have created new pathways to parenthood, and treatment options range from drug therapy, to in vitro fertilization, to surrogate parenthood. These new technologies—often referred to as assisted reproductive technologies (ART)—appear to present a solution to the heartache of infertility, but they have also evoked debates about the role of women, the definition of family, parental rights, gay parenting, and even eugenics. Interestingly, as Whiteford and Gonzalez observed, many individuals undergoing infertility treatment have begun to "define themselves not as childless, but as 'not yet pregnant'". This chapter explores the development of this narrative of hope, the resulting identity of the "not yet pregnant".
