On July 12th, 1984, the first baby was born through assisted reproduction in Barcelona and all of Spain, but the path to motherhood is not always as linear and easy as it is portrayed.

Fertility treatment is becoming more and more common throughout the world, and in Spain, one in every ten children in the Spanish state is born thanks to this technology.

This is due in particular to three factors: increasing infertility rates, a higher age for having a first child, and the access to reproductive assistance for single parents and queer couples.

But despite all of this, there is still a lot of stigma, secrecy, and sometimes shame associated with this way of having children.

On this week’s podcast, Cillian Shields and Lea Beliaeva Bander talk to Paula, Montserrat, Marta, and Violeta, four women who have all undergone assisted reproduction in Catalonia, about the ups and downs of fertility treatment, breaking stigmas, creating new family structures and much more.

The Catalan phrase of the week is “A poc a poc i amb bona lletra” which means that things have to be done with calm and patience to work out

Get in touch with the podcast team: [email protected]