AllPaths Family Building

AllPaths Family Building Formerly Resolve New England. Providing support, education and advocacy for those struggling to build their families

We are a non-profit that provides free, virtual support and resources for anyone struggling with fertility and family building challenges.

You're constantly focusing on what you can do to improve your chances of growing your family. Why not take a few moments...
05/31/2026

You're constantly focusing on what you can do to improve your chances of growing your family. Why not take a few moments to care for you?

Find the support you need in one of our free, virtual support groups. 🩷

These are the groups meeting this week, one to help arm you with mindfulness tools to deal with stress. One for those facing pregnancy loss and one for those exploring or going through donor conception.

Whether these paths align with yours or you're looking for something else, we've got over 20 groups that meet all month long.

Come find your people. Click the link below to register!
https://f.mtr.cool/iprfldbdae

05/31/2026

The mental load of trying to build a family is a lot.

Tracking cycles, decoding insurance, white-knuckling through two-week waits, mourning losses other people don't acknowledge, holding hope and despair in the same hour.

No wonder so many of us can't sleep. No wonder our shoulders sit up by our ears.

Mindfulness is a research-backed tool for what's actually happening: a nervous system that's been running on high for too long.

It teaches your body what "safe" feels like again, even in small doses.

It gives you a pause between a hard thought and a hard reaction. It can help with sleep, with rumination, with the physical tightness that builds up in your chest and jaw.

You don't need to be "good at meditating." You need a space to learn the techniques and practice them with people who understand the context.

That's what our Mindfulness Support Group offers. It's peer-led, and one of our leaders, Cynthia, is a social worker, wellness coach, and trained MBSR practitioner. Every session covers real strategies you can use that same night.

Free. Virtual. Ready to help! Learn more https://allpathsfb.org/support/ 🧡

Since your newsfeed might be flooded with first day of school/last day of school pics this week, we thought we'd take a ...
05/30/2026

Since your newsfeed might be flooded with first day of school/last day of school pics this week, we thought we'd take a crack at our own before/after photos!😂

There's no doubt that trying to build your family is exhausting, challenging, and wears you out in a way most people don't understand.

Drop a 👋 if you're a different person today than you were before you started this journey.

05/29/2026

Fertility and family building stress doesn't just live in your head. It lives in your shoulders, your jaw, your stomach, the spot behind your ribs that's always a little tight.

Here's why. Your body was built to handle stress in short bursts. A scare. A hard moment. Then it's over and you settle down.

But with infertility, your body never gets to settle. It stays braced. Always a little ready for the next hit.

This is what people mean when they say struggling to grow your family dysregulates your nervous system. Your body is stuck in "on."

A few things that can help you find regulation in the middle of the chaos:

🔸Try the 5-4-3-2-1 trick when you feel yourself spiral. Name 5 things you can see, 4 you can hear, 3 you can touch, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste. It pulls your brain back into the room you're actually in, which is usually safer than wherever it ran off to.

🔸Do a quick body check. Where are you holding it? Jaw clenched? Shoulders up at your ears? Hands in fists? Unhook one spot. Then the next. You can't think your body into calm, but you can show it where it's safe to let go.

🔸Pick one anchor that has nothing to do with TTC. A morning coffee ritual before you touch your phone. A show that's just yours. Ten minutes of stretching before bed. Something the cycle can't take from you.

🔸Tell one person, in plain words, what you actually need. "I need to vent and I don't need you to fix it." "I need a distraction." "I need you to sit with me." Most people want to help and just don't know how.

🔸Give yourself permission to opt out. Skip the baby shower. Mute the pregnancy announcement. Leave the family dinner early. Protecting your nervous system isn't selfish. It's basic care.

This isn't about fixing. It's about reminding your body, over and over, that this exact moment is safe.

Even when the bigger picture doesn't feel that way.

Our Mindfulness Group is a great place to learn tools and techniques to help you handle the stress that fertility and family building challenges throws at you.

https://allpathsfb.org/support/

05/28/2026

One of the hardest parts of trying to build your family is the emotional weight of it.

The feelings it stirs up in you, and what you've quietly started to believe about yourself for having them.

The anger when someone announces an "oopsie pregnancy." 🙃

The bitterness toward the friend who complains throughout her pregnancy.

The flicker of relief when someone else's cycle fails too, and the shame that comes right behind it.

The version of you who used to be patient and generous, who now braces every time a baby cries in public.

You are not the worst person you know. You are someone whose nervous system has been living in a chronic state of grief, and these feelings are what that looks like up close.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, social worker Debbie Fenn is reminding our community that the feelings themselves are not the problem. They are the most predictable response to one of the least talked-about kinds of suffering.

You're allowed to feel all of it. The mean ones. The petty ones. The ones you'd never say out loud.

Comment with one feeling that's surprised you on this journey. You're absolutely not the only one who's had it. 🧡

05/27/2026

Our new Executive Director came to AllPaths the same way many of us did.

Lauren first found us while experiencing her own challenging family building journey.

Hear her speak from our NIAW celebration last month, when the Pru lit up orange for the 1 in 6 (and the many more) on a difficult path to parenthood.

And enjoy these pics from that night! 🧡



Imagine working hard to have your own child only to be told that you would have to adopt him if you wanted to have any l...
05/26/2026

Imagine working hard to have your own child only to be told that you would have to adopt him if you wanted to have any legal custody of him.

That was the reality Dana was faced with because the law in 2002 hadn't caught up to the reality that families like hers existed or that they deserved the same rights as everyone else.

She and her spouse had built their family using reciprocal IVF, where Dana contributed the eggs and her spouse carried the pregnancy.

Both were connected to their son. Both completely in love with him before he even arrived.

And still, the state of New Jersey didn't automatically recognize Dana as his legal parent.

She refused to do a co-parent adoption. She was not going to file paperwork to adopt her own child.

So their attorney helped them petition for something rare at the time: a pre-birth parentage court order. Legally binding from the moment he was born.

That was just one of the many challenges Dana and her spouse overcame on their path to parenthood.

Their son is a college graduate now. And Dana has spent the last 21 years building Mombian, the two-time GLAAD award-winning site she started when he was two because the q***r parenting content she needed simply didn't exist anywhere.

In this week's episode of the AllPaths podcast, we sit down with Dana to discuss reciprocal IVF, legal parentage, the current state of LGBTQ+ family building, and the 21-year-old resource she built so no q***r family would have to navigate it alone.

Listen to "RIVF, Representation, and Resilience" now on the AllPaths podcast wherever you stream. 🎧

***rparents ***rparenting

05/26/2026

You are allowed to grieve.🧡

Whatever the loss looks like. Whatever shape it takes. Whatever you've had to let go of along the way.

It's all mournable, and you don't owe anyone an explanation for what you're feeling.

There's no timeline on this. Your coworkers don't get to set it. Your family doesn't. The internet definitely doesn't. You get to grieve for as long as you need to grieve.

And you don't have to do it by yourself. Therapy with someone who actually understands reproductive loss can make this so much more bearable.

So can a support group full of people who get it without you having to explain a thing.

If you're struggling with grief from a pregnancy or child loss. We are here to support you. Send us a DM or email us at [email protected].

Please be gentle with yourself as you go through this grieving process.🧡

05/25/2026

Struggling to build your family comes with a unique type of grief.💔

You may feel sadness from struggling to get pregnant, or facing challenges on your path to parenthood. You may have suffered loss, or just the loss of the easy and wonderful journey you thought you'd have.

This type of grief is hard to cope with because it can feel like no one really gets it or makes space for it.

The silence that surrounds it can make the whole thing feel even heavier.

This type of grief actually has a name: disenfranchised grief.

It affects your body the same way as any other grief, and when it doesn't get acknowledged, it can get stuck and show up as depression, anxiety, even physical symptoms you might not connect back to grief at all.

Here's what helps, according to Leslie McKeough, LICSW at Core Values, LLC, who has 17 years in reproductive loss:

🧡Talking to a grief therapist trained specifically in reproductive loss. Not just any therapist. Someone who knows this world. General therapy and grief work are different things.

🧡Having our own rituals. Mark the due date. Write a letter to the baby you lost. Plant something. Light a candle. You don't need the world to officially recognize your loss for you to honor it yourself. Research shows this actually works.

And watch for these signs your grief has grown into something that needs more support: sleep disruption, isolation, appetite changes, losing interest in things you used to love, intrusive thoughts.

Those aren't signs you're handling this wrong. They're symptoms that a trained specialist can help you work through and heal from.

Your grief is real. It deserves acknowledgement and support. Not for someone to tell you to "move on" or "let it go." 🧡

Struggling to grow your family is one of the loneliest things a person can go through.Especially when nobody around you ...
05/24/2026

Struggling to grow your family is one of the loneliest things a person can go through.

Especially when nobody around you gets it.

Come talk to people who actually understand.🧡

Click the link to register. https://allpathsfb.org/support/

Address

300 Baker Avenue, Suite 300
Concord, MA
01742

Telephone

+19787636504

Website

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