The Baby Decision: How to Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

FROM CONFUSION TO CONFIDENCE IN FIVE STEPS

SECOND EDITION COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED

The Baby Decision is a clear, compassionate guide to making a parenting or childfree decision with confidence. Many women of childbearing age and their partners find it hard to make this life-changing decision. Without a crystal ball, what can you do? Some women say "I like the idea of motherhood, but how do I know I'd really enjoy it? What will happen to my job, my relationship, my sanity?" Or they say, "I'm leaning toward being childfree, but will I be sorry later?"

Merle Bombardieri, MSW, LICSW has been helping people make this decision for over thirty years in her therapy and coaching practice and in her Baby Decision Workshops. With a depth that only a psychotherapist can provide, she shows you strategies for dealing with doubt and ambivalence and uncovering your deepest self-knowledge. Through anecdotes, exercises, guidelines, and checklists, she leads you to your best possible choice.

Imagine the relief of finally cutting through the tangled vines of pros and cons and seeing a clear decision emerge. Merle helps you not only to make a decision but to use it as an opportunity for you and your relationship to grow.

You will learn how to:

- Use dozens of "Secret Doors" exercises to uncover hidden feelings and wisdom.

- Separate your own needs and preferences from societal myths and expectations.

- Give full consideration to the rewards and opportunities of living childfree.

- Talk constructively with your partner even if you disagree.

- Manage work-life balance and keep your relationship strong.

- Make decisions about one-child families, single and gay parenting, fertility and adoption.

- Borrow some of the benefits of the other choice.

You will also learn how to trust your decision and make the most of it.

- Includes resources and bibliography.

- Bonus section: Preparing your body for a healthy pregnancy.

Upcoming Events

"The Baby Decision" Parenthood Decision Making Workshops

October 30, 2016 Cambridge Center for Adult Education (ccae.org)

Author: Merle a. Bombardieri Msw Licsw
Publisher: Orchard View Press
Published: 08/05/2016
Pages: 354
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.79d
ISBN: 9780997500707


Review Citation(s):
BlueInk Review 08/26/2019
Booklist 11/15/2019 pg. 32

About the Author
Bombardieri Msw Licsw, Merle a.: - Merle (Malkoff) Bombardieri, is a clinical social worker/ psychotherapist who specializes in parenthood decision-making, infertility, adoption, and making the most of a childfree life. Although she enjoyed raising her daughters, now grown, she has also been an advocate for childfree people since 1979. She has been in private practice for 30+ years in Lexington, MA. In 1981, she published the first edition of The Baby Decision based on interviews and reviews of scholarly research. Then in 1982 she became Clinical Director of RESOLVE, the national infertility association. There she wrote guidelines for infertility patients who were making decisions on new techniques such as in vitro fertilization and donor egg, as well as adoption and surrogacy. Around that time, she founded the support group Boston Single Mothers by Choice. This revised second edition of The Baby Decision, is based on 35 more years of work guiding decision-makers in educational workshops, long-distance coaching for people around the world and psychotherapy. Merle brings a sense of humor and compassion to her work. She helps clients and readers get curious about themselves and about making new discoveries that make life more fun. Merle's writing has appeared in Our Bodies, Ourselves, Brides, Glamour, Self, the Boston Globe Magazine, Boston Magazine and psychology blogs. She has lectured at Harvard Medical School, M.I.T., Wellesley College, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She has appeared on national radio and television news shows, talk shows and documentaries, including the Leeza Show. Merle has been quoted in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Huffington Post. She has also written medical journal articles and a chapter in a medical textbook. Merle is married and the mother of two grown daughters and the grandmother of a two-year-old boy. She enjoys creative writing, yoga, hiking, and travel. She is working on a novel, Don't Ask, about two sisters and a surrogate pregnancy. Sign up on her contact page to hear more about it and to receive her newsletter. Go to her website to sign up for her newsletter, www.thebabydecision.com. Twitter@thebabydecision, Facebook.com/thebabydecision