SHARE YOUR STORY: Guidelines and Tips

• No preaching. Each woman who has a story to share made her choice based on the information she had at the time and what she thought was best for her. We aren’t here to second-guess others or say why our decision was superior to anyone else’s.
• Think about your motivation for sharing your story. If your goal is to convince everyone here that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to this dilemma, this is not the place to be.  If you are seeking some solace and support, or simply wish to educate others on what it is like to walk in these shoes for a bit, please tell us.
• Think about what you wish you had known in hindsight. There are a myriad of ways we can improve on the systems we have in place for educating and supporting women in this position. It is only by talking about them that we can begin to develop better ways of helping each other.
• Think about what you learned from this experience. There are undoubtedly a multitude of lessons to be learned, about yourself and your family members and friends as well as medical procedures and logistical concerns. The more we share our lessons, the more we can all learn.

* If you run into roadblocks in your writing process, please contact us to see if we can help. Throughout the course of interviewing women for this site, we learned a lot about how to craft these stories in order to maximize the messages.

**Stories may be edited for content or length as well as grammar and punctuation.