Of My Cells: Poetry on Infertility and Motherhood, by Angela Abbott

Poetry, chapbook, 44 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Of My Cells: Poetry on Infertility and Motherhood gives voice to a topic often left in the shadows: infertility. This small collection of poetry is a deeply personal account of what I have gone through to achieve pregnancy. It is broken up into two sections: infertility and motherhood. The intended audience is any woman who has gone through something traumatic, but especially those who have fought the battle (or are actively fighting the battle) of infertility. This collection is also for the men and women who walk alongside those women in this journey. My hope is that this book brings connection and hope in an often lonely, daunting, and misunderstood situation.  

This topic is more relevant than ever, as there are more and more women requiring artificial reproductive technologies to assist in getting pregnant. However, infertility treatments such as IVF have become a hot topic overnight with recent dangerous personhood bills. In the process of IVF, typically more embryos are created than needed. That is because it is likely that not all embryos are viable for life and even the ones that are, often don’t result in a live birth. It took three genetically normal embryos for me to give birth to one child.  

While I do believe there are powerful collections of poetry published, I am unaware of any collection focused on the topic of infertility and motherhood. This poetry focuses on identity, grief, expectation, familial relationships, and healing, through a fixed lens of infertility and motherhood.

When I first entered the world of infertility, the statistic was that one in eight women suffered from infertility; in just a few short years, that statistic is now one in six. This collection will undoubtedly bind together the women on this difficult journey and those who love them through it. I hope this poetry collection that explores healing, grief, and the honesty of the human condition, will gently take the hand of its reader and remind them that they are never alone.

Angela Abbott is an English and creative writing professor, as well as a book editor. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, two kids, and three dogs. Her work can be seen in Atticus Review, 805 Lit + Mag, Adanna Literary Journal and elsewhere.