Life After IVF Counselling (2025)

06/11/2025

📣Registrations open for November & December Online support groups.

This time of year, can get busy and sometimes amidst the busyness, we may experience isolation and / or triggers.

Connecting with others who understand how it feels to be childless not by choice during the festive season may give you the space to be seen and heard.

A support group may provide a place to vent, share, learn from others' experiences, or even just have a laugh.

There is no agenda at Life After IVF support groups - just a space for safe connection and conversation.

Link in bio or at www.lifeafterivf.com.au to register for zoom link to attend.

Hope to see you online. 💖

03/11/2025

📣NOvember: The Month to Honour Your Boundaries and Reclaim Your Peace

As the year draws to a close, November often becomes a whirlwind of planning and navigating social engagements, obligations, and deadlines.

For those navigating grief, infertility, or childlessness, November can also be a month of quiet emotional triggers.

After many years of saying yes for fear of offending and finding myself facing every New Year exhausted, I have started viewing November as my month to rethink and reclaim boundaries for wellbeing.

A boundary is not a wall; it’s a doorway to which I hold the key that leads back to myself. I have the power to choose what and who I let in and out of my life and space.

I am learning to give myself permission to say no
-No to overextending myself – I do not have infinite amounts of energy
-No to gatherings that leave me emotionally drained – what is the cost of the aftermath of attending something that triggers
-No to pretending I’m okay – I need to look after my own wellbeing so that I have the energy to enjoy the holidays in a way that recharges me to do the things that are nourishing

Saying no without guilt, without explanation, without apology, is liberating and empowering.

Saying no is not rejection — it’s redirection. It creates space for what truly matters: rest, healing, and peace.

This NOvember, I encourage you to practice making no a sacred word for self-care.

Never forget - you are allowed to protect your energy; you are allowed to choose you.

03/11/2025

📣At Life After IVF Counselling, we know that thoughts and feelings aren’t constrained by calendar dates.

I think infertility and childlessness thoughts and feelings are like the ocean. Sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent, and sometimes a great big freaking tsunami. Always different and always there.

We find safe spaces to vent, learn coping strategies, honour ourselves, and build our grief muscles as we move forward.

Whether it’s been weeks, months, or years, we may still experience the waves of grief, and if and when you do, you deserve care, compassion, and safe space to speak your truth.

💛 You are not alone. Support continues at Life After IVF. Reach out if you need to talk to someone who gets this grief. Contact details at www.lifeafterivf.com.au💛

26/10/2025

🌿 October 26 is Grandparents Day 🌿

Today, I want to honour those whose love crosses generations — for their child who hurts, for the grandchild who never arrived, or the ones who arrived but could not stay.

Grandparents are usually the silent hidden grievers of their children’s infertility and loss.

Their grief is ignored or overlooked because they may never mention it or they may have other grandchildren. But do you know when a baby is lost, no matter how many other babies there are, most grandparents grieve the one who isn’t here.

They feel the ache of what might have been and the endure the pain of watching their own child suffer.

Theirs is a double heartbreak – for the grandchild they’ll never hold, for the child they can’t protect, for the pain they can’t fix.

Society rarely recognizes their sorrow. They’re told to “stay strong,” to “be there for the parents.”

But who’s there for them?

When a son or daughter is childless not by choice, the grief is quieter…
No baby. No funeral. No photos.
Just the invisible loss of a future imagined.
And sometimes, the silence is deafening as child and grandparent don’t know what or how to say what they want to.

To all the grandparents who loved a grandchild they never met and hold space for their children’s grief —
I see you,
I honour you,
and I know your love lives on.

If you are a grandparent grieving in silence Life After IVF, holds space for you also.

Reach out if you want a confidential space to talk. Contact details at www.lifeafterivf.com.au

grief

15/10/2025

💖At 7pm tonight Melbourne time, I will be lighting a candle for my twins Claudia and Chloe who are my inspiration and my motivation every day.

Two tiny heartbeats who couldn’t stay
But forever changed how I live today
A love so profound
It became my solid ground
Grief changed from longing to giving
Claudia & Chloe, you are my everything.

Who are you lighting a candle for tonight? Please share in the comments.

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14/10/2025

📣Wave of Light at 7pm local time on October 15th is a globally recognised event to remember and honour all babies gone too soon.

As loss parents across the globe light their candle, we join hearts to remember our love in a 24 hour wave of light reaching across the world. 🕯️💞

At 7pm your time, I invite you to join me in lighting a candle for an hour to remember your baby and / or embryo.

In this time of shared remembrance, hope, and love, we know that we are not alone.

I will be lighting my candle for Claudia and Chloe, and for every baby who left too soon.

I invite you to post your candle at 7pm and tag me so our lights connect around the world.

12/10/2025

📣This PAIL (Pregnancy and Infant loss) week I want to highlight a loss in the infertility journey that is not often spoken about.

The deep unrecognised sadness of losing embryos or the pain of a cycle that produces no embryos.

In a clinical world, where we speak of cells, cycles, transfers, blastocysts, gametes,…. it is often forgotten (or ignored) that these tiny cells may have held a lot of hope, love, and dreams of a future.

When an embryo fails to develop, implant, or survive, the loss is real. When an embryo does not eventuate, there are many secondary losses that arise from the sacrifices made during that cycle.

These losses of a future imagined, is grief. And like any other grief, it has the right to be mourned. You are allowed to feel anger, sadness, grief, frustration, fear, …whatever feelings arise that are related to your grief.

In a world that ignores this silent pain, it is ok to listen to your heart that dared to hope. Because, if like me, your love began the moment you imagined that first dividing cell, you had imagined a future filled with love which did not come to be.

And every love deserves mourning when it ends. 🤍

Did you give yourself permission to mourn embryo loss? Do let us know in the comments.

If you didn’t at the time, it is never too late to do so now.
Reach out if you would like to explore more. My contact details are at www.lifeafterivf.com.au

10/10/2025

📣Pregnancy and Infant loss awareness week creates community. A time to come together to acknowledge our losses, our strengths, and our love.

Research says that grief that is not acknowledged, known as disenfranchised grief, can lead to isolation, withdrawal, feeling stigmatised, shame, blame, and guilt.

The power of being seen by people who “get infertility and loss” either 1 to 1 with a therapist, in a support group, or a community event says
• your babies mattered
• your love matters
• you matter
• you are not alone
• your feelings are real
• I will sit with you in the muck without trying to fix you

Connection with others in this community
• offers language to voice feelings
• provides comfort through shared rituals
• brings H.O.P.E – hold on pain ends
• reminds us that we feel loss because we first felt love.
• is a living example of how we too can get through this

Has connection helped you heal? Do let us know in the comments or tag a friend or group who has helped you heal

09/10/2025

📣9 October marks the start of Pregnancy and Infant loss awareness week 2025.

For those of us who are or who have been on the , this may be a difficult week of reminders.

For those who lost pregnancy/s, for those who created embryos but didn’t achieve a pregnancy, or for those who were unable to create embryos - you are not alone. Your grief matters, your love for your much wanted children who never came to be matters, YOU MATTER.

💜 If you are grieving, know that support is available. Reach out to a therapist or a support group to walk alongside you in your healing.

💜 It does not matter how long ago your loss occurred — grief has no curfew. It is not bound by time or social expectations. Healing isn’t linear, and you are allowed to revisit your loss and love whenever your heart needs to.

💜 You may be a long way on your healing journey, but may still feel sad or triggered this week. Please know that healing doesn’t mean forgetting — it means learning to live alongside what still matters.

💜There’s no expiry date on love, and grief is love that has nowhere to go.

💜 Be gentle with yourself this week.

How will you show yourself some self-care this week? Drop a line in the comments.

09/10/2025

📣📣Support group for Oct, Nov, Dec 2025

This time of year, can start to get challenging as we face many child-centric activities and events. Holding the weight of our journeys and its many losses may be a lonely and isolating experience.

Come meet other childless not by choice people for a chat, cry, laugh, or simply to feel less alone.

Registrations are now open for 16 October, 20 November, and 18 December from 7.30pm – 8.45pm (Melbourne time).

Registration fee of AUD$10.00 (+ $1.53 booking fee) to cover administration costs. Link in bio or https://events.humanitix.com/living-with-childlessness-support-group

Register for any of the groups or all 3. It will be great to connect with you online.

Participant numbers are capped at 10 to maintain small group safety, so there may be waitlists.

Sessions are facilitated by Anne Altamore, lived experience counsellor and psychotherapist.

Note : Registrations are via Humanitix as 100% of Humanitix's profits are dedicated to charities providing life's essentials, like education, to humans worldwide which aligns closely with Life After IVF’s values.

02/10/2025

📣October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. This blog shares how community and connection helped me heal from the isolated grief of miscarriage and invites you to seek out your own space for connection.

Pregnancy loss is a sensitive matter. Everyone’s grief is as unique as their fingerprints.

Not everyone is comfortable or ready to share. Not everyone feels the deep intense grief I have voiced. But for those who are looking to know you are not alone, you are not broken, please reach out to wherever you feel most safe to be seen and heard.

This October
💜Learn all you can about grief and baby loss
💜 Reach out to someone who may be grieving — your presence can make a difference.
💜 If you are grieving, know that support is available. Reach out to a therapist or a support group to walk alongside you in your healing.
💜 It does not matter how long ago your loss occurred — grief has no curfew.

The words “there is no heartbeat” will always be part of my story. But now, so too are the words: you are not alone.

11/09/2025

After a bit of a break, I am resuming support groups on the 3rd Thursday of each month.

This time of year can start to get challenging as we face many child centric activities and events. Holding the weight of our journeys and its many losses may be a lonely and isolating experience.

Come meet other childless not by choice people for a chat, cry, laugh, or simply to feel less alone.

Sept 18 will be in the middle of World Childless Week. This may be a great opportunity to connect and chat about the submissions we have read or the webinars we attended.

Registrations are now open for 18 September from 7.30pm – 8.45pm (Melbourne time). Registration fee of AUD$10.00 (+ $1.53 booking fee) to cover administration costs. Link in bio or https://events.humanitix.com/living-with-childlessness-support-group

Participant numbers are capped at 10 to maintain small group safety, so there may be waitlists.

Sessions are facilitated by Anne Altamore, lived experience counsellor and psychotherapist.
Note : Registrations are via Humanitix as 100% of Humanitix's profits are dedicated to charities providing life's essentials, like education, to humans worldwide which aligns closely with Life After IVF’s values.

Life After IVF Counselling

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