I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Diahan Southard is a pioneer in the world of DNA testing and family history. She founded Your DNA Guide as a way to teach anyone with DNA how to use it to find out more about themselves and their family. She is the author of Your DNA Guide - the Book, and creator of Your DNA Guide - the Academy, an online learning platform. She spends all her spare time with her three kids and especially looks forward to date night with her handsome husband.

Jayne has 23 years of experience in the field of genetic genealogy. She had the extraordinary experience of being mentored by Dr. Scott Woodward and his visionary team that took shape in the earliest days of this burgeoning field. She has been a part of nearly every stage of driving the discovery process forward: field specimen collection, marker selection and assay design, data management and computational processes, analysis, and algorithms, and investigating population-level research questions. She has lectured throughout the United States and international venues on the applications of molecular biology to elucidating ancient and recent genealogical connections. She has authored and co-authored many peer-reviewed scientific publications, as well as general articles on genetic genealogy. It is a pleasure for her to see the accelerating developments in genetic genealogy, and the wide accessibility and application it has for the average human curious about their origins.

Listen to Jayne and Diahan, as they discuss with Ellen and Jen:

• How the two started out as college friends embarking on a research project together.

• How DNA is analyzed and what the results really mean.

• Ethnicity results and the clues of family history and groups or communities.

• Medical genealogy with DNA testing, possibilities and current challenges.

• Issues of anonymity with DNA testing.

• Differences between DNA testing companies: values, terms and conditions, and what the companies do with your information.

• How does knowledge of your genetic connections affect and/or define your relationships.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Recommended links:

Book Link: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/your-dna-guide-the-book

First article in in-depth series about ethnicity results: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/2019/4/15/dna-ethnicity-changes-thats-not-what-it-said-before

free download about finding birth parents: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/dna-birth-family

Vanner and Donna Johnson are a married couple, parents of two children, living in Utah. Vanner is a licensed attorney with a strong technology background, currently working in the financial industry in client success. Donna is an elementary educator.

Kelly And Devin McNeil are a married couple who are 3 time IVF patients, with 2 failed cycles, then a successful pregnancy resulting in their now 13 year old son. They reside in Colorado.

These two couples met because of an inexplicable IVF mix-up, forever connecting the two families. Together they are working to support their children and navigate the best path forward.

Listen to Donna, Vanner, Devin and Kelly, as they discuss with Ellen:

• How a fun night for the Johnson exploring ancestry through a DNA kit upended their lives.

• Discovering Vanner was the genetic father of only one of their sons; results for their second son, conceived via IVF, read “father unknown.”

• Facing their fears of the unknown – could the genetic father have rights to their child?

• Seeking out the genetic father to support their son’s wishes.

• The McNeils getting that call, sure at first that it must be a scam.

• Learning the truth, and both families navigating what that truth would mean for the future of their children.

• What they hope to gain from a legal action against the clinic.

• Advice to families considering taking a DNA test

Alison Motluk is a Toronto-based freelance journalist who works in print and radio. She has reported widely on the social fallout of reproductive technology, including about the first boy to find his anonymous sperm donor using only his spit and the internet, about the health uncertainties of egg donation, and about the Ottawa fertility doctor who used his own sperm to help patients conceive. She publishes a weekly newsletter, HeyReprotech and Ukraine Surrogacy Dispatches.

Listen to Alison as she discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• Major differences in assisted reproductive technology between Canada and the US, including:

o Surrogacy

o Health insurance

o Gamete donation

• Fifteen+ years of reporting in the area and some of the most fascinating stories she’s covered, including:

o The first donor-conceived person to discover the identity of the donor through a DNA test and the internet

o A surrogate who got pregnant with her own child while pregnant with intended parents’ child

o A surrogate who underwent a transfer of 4 embryos, and where all took

o A Canadian doctor who used his own sperm with unknowing fertility patients

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about HeyReprotech, the weekly newsletter about what's really going on inside assisted reproduction. https://www.facebook.com/HeyReprotechNewsletter

Learn more about Ukraine Surrogacy Dispatches and the newsletter: https://ukrainesurrogacydispatches.substack.com/about

Learn more about Alison Motluk here! https://www.heyreprotech.com

Come visit some of Alison’s stories here!

How Canada became an international surrogacy destination

Anonymous sperm donor traced on internet. New Scientist. 2005.

Anatomy of a surrogacy.

She donated eggs to her sister — how did it turn out?

First prosecution under Assisted Human Reproduction Act ends in conviction.

After pleading guilty for paying surrogates, business is booming for this fertility matchmaker.

How often might a surrogate baby actually be the surrogate's own?

https://www.heyreprotech.com/p/interested-in-assisted-reproduction.

Josie Rodriguez-Bouchier (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Latinx fertility acupuncturist, and Queer Reproductive Health and Justice advocate. Since 2008, they have been supporting folks with wombs to conceive with the help of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Josie's mission is to re-center queer, trans, and non-binary folks, especially those who are Black, Brown, and Indigenous, in the reproductive healthcare realm and beyond. Josie is the host of The Intersectional Fertility Podcast and creator of the Whole Self Fertility Method™. They live on stolen Cheyenne land, known today as Lakewood, Colorado, with their fiancée, two children, and two rescue pups.

Episode 119: 800+ Siblings – Laura Doe by I Want to Put a Baby in You!

Eric Mobley is a 27 year old living in Liouville, Kentucky. He works in higher education and has been married for five years. Currently adapting to post-COVID life, Eric shares his story on how this past year has been very different than most. Not only did he have to navigate a pandemic, Eric also found out his family history (and part of his identity) is significantly different than he previously believed.

Listen to Eric Mobley as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• Being raised by older parents.

• Finding out as an adult -- through a DNA test --that he was donor conceived.

• Learning that a high school classmate was a half-sibling!

• Meeting other half siblings and the donor.

• Answering medical questions and facing mental health challenges.

• Fearing rejection and finding the right support.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Steve Snyder is nationally known for his work helping families with assisted reproduction law. He is the past chair of the American Bar Association's Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee, Family Law Section. Steve has taught numerous reproductive law continuing legal education classes to fellow Minnesota attorneys, as well as to lawyers from across the globe. Many attorneys refer assisted reproductive law cases to him because of his extensive knowledge in the field. Steve has been recognized as a Super Lawyer, and he is also AV Rated (which means judges and fellow attorneys have noted him as having the highest degree of legal ability and ethical standards).

Listen to Steve Snyder as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• What the ISS (International Social Services) is, what it does, and how it determined its principles on surrogacy.

• How surrogacy viewpoints vary around the world.

• Where the ISS principles significantly differ with US perspectives.

• The international divide over “compensation” of a surrogate.

• The differing views of parent-child relationships when there is a lack of genetic connection.

• Issues of donor gametes and resulting children’s access to genetic history and identity.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Steve Snyder’s law firm: https://www.snyderlawfirm.com

Read the ISS Verona Principles: https://www.iss-ssi.org/images/Surrogacy/VeronaPrinciples_25February2021.pdf

Jesse Fiest has worked in family-building marketing and content creation for over six years and is proud to be co-chair of RESOLVE's 2020 and 2021 Federal Advocacy Day. She was inspired to take a more active role in advocacy when she began working with gestational carriers and egg donors. "Just seeing women put themselves on the front line as surrogates and donors do, it made me want do contribute in a more meaningful way, to pay forward the luck I have had in my own family-building."

Jesse's educational background is in law and cultural anthropology. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and their young daughter. (Jesse REALLY wants to find a West Virginia attendee for AD 2021 so that all 50 states are represented.)

Joe Cody has been active in RESOLVE Advocacy Day since 2018, previously serving on the Volunteer Training Committee, as a Maryland State Captain, and as Advocacy Day Co-Chair in 2020. He is dedicated to increasing access to family building options and has been blown away by the support and energy from RESOLVE volunteers. He believes stories from constituents and experts like Advocacy Day attendees move policy, drive support, and create real change. He has lived in Washington DC since 2008, where he has worked for a Member of Congress, served as a health policy consultant, and provided health care related government relations and regulatory analysis for multiple medical associations for over a decade.

Listen to Jesse and Joe as they discuss with Ellen and Jenn:

• Each of Jesse and Joe’s personal stories that inspired their paths to advocacy.

• The incredible – and sometimes intimidating – experience of advocating for a better future.

• What RESOLVE Advocacy Day looks like.

• How to prepare for advocacy day.

• How you can help and get involved!

• Sign up for Advocacy Day at http://familybuilding.resolve.org/site/Calendar?id=65200&view=Detail

• Contact your legislators through RESOLVE's Letter system at https://p2a.co/u6qlzep

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about RESOLVE: https://resolve.org/

Ellen Gustafson is a social entrepreneur, author, activists, and, most importantly, Mom and Military Spouse. She has done extensive work toward food system change (Authoring “We the Eaters: If We Can Change Dinner, We Can Change the World”, Co-Founding Food Tank: the food think tank, giving 4 four TEDx Talks on food system change and advising big food businesses like Barilla and start-ups like Food Stand). She is the Co-Founder of FEED and the FEED Foundation, an early give-back fashion brand that has helped provide over 100 million school meals to children around the world, has been the Co-Director of the Summit Institute since 2016, which applies creative solutions to the world’s biggest challenges and has helped create diversity, inclusion, and anti-harassment programs at multiple conference companies. She is the Mom of three miracle toddlers and lives with them and her husband in “just seasonal enough” Virginia Beach, VA.

Katy Bell Hendrickson is a Military Spouse to a retired career Naval Special Warfare officer and mother of five children. She and her husband have experience with adoption, assisted reproduction and third party reproduction. Katy was the Reserve Flag Spouse Advisor for the Command Spouse Leadership School at NLEC in Naval Station Newport, Flag Spouse Advisor for CORE San Diego, and an Advisor to Naval Services FamilyLine in Washington DC. Katy has been active in the Warrior and Family Support Group at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado as a Senior Peer Mentor and has led multiple workshops on Family Building covering the topics of ART and Adoption. In her spare time, she is an architect by education and training - having spent the last decade working mainly in residential design and historic preservation. She is a former Board of Director for the Coronado Historical Association, Chairperson for the Heritage Committee, Chairwoman for the Coronado Historical Home Tour 2017-2019 and the recipient of the Cobb McCarty Preservation Award. Katy is currently on the Women's Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts and lives in Washington DC with her husband, youngest son, and twin daughters.

Listen to Katy and Ellen as they discuss with (the other) Ellen and Jenn:

• How they came about forming the Military Family Building Coalition.

• Ellen’s background and infertility journey in the military healthcare system.

• Katy’s journey and how she got involved.

• The current status of fertility coverage in the military healthcare system.

• What MFBC is doing to help families.

• How you can help and support MFBC.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about Military Family Building Coalition: https://www.militaryfamilybuilding.org/

David Dodge is a writer, researcher, and LGBTQ advocate with a special interest in non-traditional families, politics, arts and culture, and travel. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, and has also written for HuffPost Queer Voices, The Advocate, Travel + Leisure, The Glass Magazine, and more. In 2014, he chronicled the start of his journey as a known sperm donor in "The Sperm Donor Diary," in a series of posts for The New York Times’ Motherlode Blog. David is the Executive Editor of Gay With Kids. He is based in New York City.

Listen to David as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn:

• His Harvard background and what led him to writing in the infertility world.

• His experience as a Mormon gay man from Utah.

• Becoming a sperm donor for his friends.

• The continued relationship he has with the children from his donation.

• His thoughts on kids of his own.

• Some advice on being a sperm donor – get a lawyer!

• His thoughts on anonymous vs known donations.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903.

Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/

Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/

Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch

Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/

Learn more about David: https://www.bydaviddodge.com/