Episode 203: Carry On – Shea Bart Andreone

Shea Bart Andreone is a writer, speaker, and author. She is also a mother who knows the agony that can come with trying to have a baby. Shea’s journey to becoming a mother to two healthy children was punctuated by pain, hospitalizations, and death. Carry On offers a candid, intrepid look into the real stories of the many people for whom this universal drive to start a family doesn’t come easily. These stories are an exploration of these people’s love, hope, and desperation to keep trying.

Shea’s writing, from her own blog (Twig-Hugger) to numerous articles in mom and parent-oriented platforms (The Next Family, Motherfigure, LA Parent, Your Teen Magazine, and Chicken Soup For The Soul) has given her views and opinions platform to reach interested and like-minded eyes and ears.

Shea has been a featured speaker at Expressing Motherhood, a live storytelling event held in major cities across the United States. She has shared her story about living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG). Shea dealt with HG for all three of my pregnancies, and participated in research studies through HER, the world’s largest network of HG survivors and experts.

She’s been featured on podcasts, including “Single Vs. Married”, where she spoke about natural childbirth, medical interventions traditionally utilized during childbirth, and why she opted to have as few interventions as possible during her own labors and deliveries. Shea discussed the months of trying to conceive, illness, and suffering that finally resulted in giving birth to a healthy baby girl.

Before having children, Shea was a competitive and then professional figure skater. Hailing from New York, Shea acted off-Broadway for nearly a decade. She then moved to the West Coast and continued to act, in TV, films, and theater. While Shea loves NY and travels back often, LA is where her husband, children, dog and her call home.

Listen as Shea shares with Ellen and Jenn:

• Teaching senior water aerobics classes and spending time as a professional ice skater, among her many talents and activities.
• Meeting her husband and both knowing right away they wanted to try for kids. 
• Heading to the doctor when it wasn’t happening and being quickly scheduled for fibroid removal surgery.
• Finding herself pregnant before surgery and being told she just had to wait to see whether the pregnancy or fibroid won out. 
• The pregnancy won out, but then extreme sickness hit. Hyperemesis, not being able to keep food down, losing weight to the point of the doctor threatening hospitalization, and a terrifying adverse reaction to anti-nausea medication.
•  Second time around trying a Zofran pump to deal with the nausea but losing the pregnancy. 
• Looking for something to help with the healing. Trying sewing but ultimately turning to writing. 
• Connecting with a community that had struggled with starting their families. Recognizing the universal need for people to talk about their experiences. Writing her book, Carry On, to bring those stories together and to others.

Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: [phone].

Learn more about Shea Bart Andreone and her book Carry On: https://www.sheabartandreone.com/about-shea-bart-andreone

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

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

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