Rating: 
Summary: Great book for anyone considering DI
Review: Having a child is a decision that affects the rest of your life. When you turn to DI, there are many questions and dilemas to overcome before proceeding. This book does a wonderful job of discussing the challenges and emotional obstacles one should overcome before conceiving a DI child. Well done. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: Helped me feel less unique
Review: I agree with other reviewers that this book focuses more on the emotional side than the technical. However, I can get all the technical information I need from my doctor. What this book gave me was a sense that there are a LOT of others out there who are doing what I'm doing. It also helped me focus on and deal with all the stress that the process brings with it. I think you can get a lot out of this book even if you are not the hetero couple that is more targeted by the examples. You still have to deal with the issues between you and the child and the donor, no matter what your relationship is, and those chapters were very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: A great book to help with the loss!
Review: I am a DI adoptee and I recommended this book to my mother. She really felt validated by the book. As an DI adoptee I also recommend "Adoption Forum" by Kasey Hamner. It covers DI from all angles. And those touched by DI are represented in many of the other topics. Oh, and remember, always disclose!!
Rating: 
Summary: The best book on Donor Insemination to date!!!
Review: If there was only one thing I could say about the book Helping the Stork it would be "Why did it take so long for this book to be written?" Carol Frost Vercollone and Heidi and Robert Moss have written an excellent guide for those thinking about using donor insemination to build their families, and also for those who already have their famlies through DI. This book was written for others to explore the issues surrounding donor insemination and to help them come to their own decisions about this common but not openly talked about form of family building. The added bonus is that it is also written for families, friends and health professionals to help in their understanding of the concerns and the issues that DI families face. The authors, from their own personal experience with DI and through counselling others want to provide reassurance that DI can be a wonderfully positive way to build families. This book has an easy to read style and is filled with numerous personal anecdotes from others who have either gone through DI or have some knowledge of it. I felt this was the best part of the book, the connection with others, their advice, fears, thoughts and honesty which can only come from people directly involved with this process. For those of you thinking you are alone in using DI, this book can certainly offer some comfort in the personal stories of others and the authors obvious intimate knowledge of this topic. The book goes through the various steps of DI, the decision making, issues of privacey and disclosure, and how to go about initiating the DI process. The authors are careful to try to cover issues concerning all individuals who may be using DI, including married couples, lesbians and single women. Also valuable in the book is the resource list and the bibliography. I'd like to share this passage from the book which I felt was it's strongest message. "Our goal, both in writing this book and in our counselling, is to change social attitudes toward DI so much that if you do tell, you can feel more confident that your child will ultimately view this news positively, not negatively. It may never be OK that there was so little donor information provided or that your family began with such suffering for the parents, but you'll certainly get across just how wanted your child was." Helping the Stork has been a long awaited for book that will hopefully do just that.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on Donor Insemination to date!!!
Review: If there was only one thing I could say about the book Helping the Stork it would be "Why did it take so long for this book to be written?" Carol Frost Vercollone and Heidi and Robert Moss have written an excellent guide for those thinking about using donor insemination to build their families, and also for those who already have their famlies through DI. This book was written for others to explore the issues surrounding donor insemination and to help them come to their own decisions about this common but not openly talked about form of family building. The added bonus is that it is also written for families, friends and health professionals to help in their understanding of the concerns and the issues that DI families face. The authors, from their own personal experience with DI and through counselling others want to provide reassurance that DI can be a wonderfully positive way to build families. This book has an easy to read style and is filled with numerous personal anecdotes from others who have either gone through DI or have some knowledge of it. I felt this was the best part of the book, the connection with others, their advice, fears, thoughts and honesty which can only come from people directly involved with this process. For those of you thinking you are alone in using DI, this book can certainly offer some comfort in the personal stories of others and the authors obvious intimate knowledge of this topic. The book goes through the various steps of DI, the decision making, issues of privacey and disclosure, and how to go about initiating the DI process. The authors are careful to try to cover issues concerning all individuals who may be using DI, including married couples, lesbians and single women. Also valuable in the book is the resource list and the bibliography. I'd like to share this passage from the book which I felt was it's strongest message. "Our goal, both in writing this book and in our counselling, is to change social attitudes toward DI so much that if you do tell, you can feel more confident that your child will ultimately view this news positively, not negatively. It may never be OK that there was so little donor information provided or that your family began with such suffering for the parents, but you'll certainly get across just how wanted your child was." Helping the Stork has been a long awaited for book that will hopefully do just that.
Rating: 
Summary: Focus on male infertility
Review: This book is for heterosexual couples facing male infertility. A good part of the book deals with men's feelings of loss over their infertility and decision to turn to Donor Insemination. It's not really worth reading for single women or lesbians interested in Donor Insemination.
Rating:
Summary: The donor insemination bible
Review: This book is the best for anyone considering using donor sperm to create their family. Most infertility books usually only have one chapter regarding donor insemination and then it's only to talk about the medical procedure. Helping the Stork has become my resource manual for using donor insemination.
Rating:
Summary: Thank good ness for this book!
Review: This book was a wonderful tool for my husband and I when we were exploring DI as an option. This is the one book that truly addresses our unique infertility situation. None of the other infertility books spend more than a page talking about using donor sperm. This was wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: A Godsend for us!
Review: This book was an ENORMOUS help to my husband and me. I agree with some of the other reviewers that it is focused more on the emotional aspects and couples dealing with male infertility and may not be such a great help to single mothers and lesbian couples. But there ARE those of us out here in that category of couples with male factor infertility. My husband and I had already tried unsuccessfully to conceive through ICSI and could not afford more attempts. Donor insemination was our only other option besides adoption. This book focused on EXACTLY what we needed. What are the pros and cons, tell or don't tell others, tell or don't tell the child (I felt they were pro-telling, but discussed the positives and negatives of each choice), known donor or anonymous? These were some of the many issues we were concerned with. I didn't need a biology lesson to learn how it's done - I had other books on infertility to explain that. I didn't need a cost rundown - it varies so much, my clinic could answer those questions. After FOUR years of agonizing over whether or not to do this, this book FINALLY helped us make our decision and decide how we would handle all of the ensuing choices. I felt the authors did a great job of presenting all sides of the issue in an honest and fair way. I highly recommend it to other couples in our situation.
Rating:
Summary: Helped me feel less unique
Review: This book was great. After doing much research, I've found that finding information on donor insemination is difficult. I knew so little about DI (donor insemination) that I wasn't even sure what questions to ask. This book gave me a lot of information and enough knowledge to make a list of good, informed questions to ask my doctor. I do agree with one reviewer that it focuses a bit too much on the emotional aspect, but DI is an emotional decision. I disagree with the reviewer who said this book pushes parents to not tell their child of their DI origins. I found it to be the opposite and it seemed to me that the authors were for telling the child of their conception. I gave this book 4 stars because, even though it is a very good information source, there is a lot more they could have added, and a good deal they could have left out. More information on the medical and financial aspect of DI and fewer anecdotes would have given this book a 5 star rating in my opinion. All in all, it's an excellent book for someone just beginning the DI process and needing a basic guide.
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