Maternal Hope: Stories of Unseen Struggles, Unexpected Resilience, and the Untold Ways Families Are Made

by Camille Seigle, Ali Mann Stevens

Reproductive Heartbreak. Real Hope.

Not every path to parenthood is simple—or spoken aloud.

Maternal Hope is a powerful collection of raw and rarely shared stories from everyday people navigating painful realities on the road to starting a family.

More than a dozen contributing authors share candid essays that reflect a wide range of family-building experiences. Each author opens their heart and details a deeply personal journey shaped by longing, loss, courage, and love.

Their stories span everything from infertility, in vitro fertilization, and ectopic pregnancy to miscarriage, infant loss, and postpartum depression. You’ll also discover accounts of NICU admissions, traumatic births, pregnancy after loss, child health issues, and more.

The wisdom shared in Maternal Hope dismantles the myth of “happily ever after” and instead honors the complexity, resilience, and truth of what it means to build a family when doing so is anything but simple.

Inside Maternal Hope, you’ll

Honest depictions of fertility struggles, pregnancy complications, shared grief, and maternal mental healthThe perspectives of a gay father navigating international surrogacy and a lesbian mother pursuing IVFThe reflections of a woman who is childfree by choiceSupport, validation, and resources for those who’ve felt alone in their experiencesA reminder that every path to parenthood can be beautiful—even the ones no one talks about
Born from their own lived experiences with twin infant loss and postpartum depression, Camille Seigle and Ali Mann Stevens created this book to break the silence and offer hope to those navigating the often-invisible challenges of becoming a parent.

Maternal Hope is a light in the dark. A balm for the soul. A chorus of voices that You are not alone.

215 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2025

About the author

Camille Seigle is a consultant, mentor, speaker, and facilitator who helps guide individuals and companies to unlock their full potential. She and Maternal Hope coauthor Ali Mann Stevens met in the workplace long before they each started their family-building journeys. When Camille later suffered from life-altering postpartum anxiety and depression, and Ali experienced the premature delivery and then loss of her twins, what started as a workplace friendship evolved into a mutual passion about a topic so personal to each of them.

Camille and Ali knew they needed to team up to help break the silence around the struggles of starting a family. Together, they’re committed to bringing support, community, and ultimately, hope, with this collection of real, unvarnished stories about the messy, painful, and beautiful realities of pregnancy, fertility, and family formation.

Reviews

[Scott Carbonara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The path to parenthood is not always linear. While we may fantasize that it will come easy, many struggle in the shadows, bearing stories that no one knows. The loss of that dream—of a healthy pregnancy, birth, and child—can bring a grief that feels suffocating. This book doesn’t sugarcoat such challenges, as it shares the stories of real mothers (and a father) who enter parenthood through diverse and often difficult circumstances. But the anthology also doesn’t leave the reader in despair, as these raw accounts provide real examples of families who find parenthood—sometimes through unconventional means. Most importantly, this book reminds those who are facing challenges like infertility, a miscarriage, an ill child, or surrogacy that they are not alone. Within the community and camaraderie created from these stories, readers will feel at home and comforted as they chart their own path forward. While reading this well-written anthology, I cried, I laughed at times, and I found tremendous hope—and even joy.

[Jenny Lisk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in Maternal Hope are so real and so honest. I wish I'd had this book years ago, when I was dealing with some of the issues the authors discuss. They write about how silence and stigma contribute to people feeling so alone in their pregnancy and fertility struggles - which makes it all so much harder to deal with. I think the chapters in this book, from real people sharing their real stories, will help people feel less alone, and hopefully give them the courage to discuss their struggles with those closest to them, too.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the feelings in this book were very relatable to myself and my journey to becoming a Father. "Maternal" is not just a term for mothers- this book is for anyone going through trouble having a child, this book is a good hug for support!