What if your path to motherhood didn’t look anything like you expected… but led you exactly where you were meant to be?

In this deeply moving and expansive conversation, I sit down with Alexandra Dominguez—an adoptee, adoptive mother, IVF mom, and now a guide for alternative family building—to explore the many paths to becoming a parent.

We met by chance at the gym (proof that synchronistic connections are all around), and from the moment Alexandra began sharing her story, I knew it needed to be heard.

Her journey spans IUI, unexplained infertility, adoption, a devastating disrupted adoption, IVF success, and now embryo donation—a full-circle story that highlights the complexity, grief, trust, and beauty of building a family in non-traditional ways.

This episode is for anyone navigating fertility challenges and wondering: Which path is right for me?

In This Episode, We Talk About:

• Alexandra’s experience with unexplained infertility and PCOS
• Why she chose to step away from fertility treatments and pursue adoption
• The emotional reality of a failed/disrupted adoption (and how she moved through it)
• The powerful moment that led her to her son just one month later
• How her body shifted after becoming a mom—and led her back to IVF
• Her IVF journey, including retrieval, OHSS, and a successful first transfer
• The importance of listening to your body and intuition on your fertility path
• The financial and emotional realities of adoption vs. IVF
• What it means to donate embryos—and her decision to give her remaining embryos to a close friend
• The concept of compassionate embryo transfer
• Why community and support are everything during fertility and adoption journeys
• Her new work helping others navigate IVF, adoption, surrogacy, and alternative family building

Connect with Alexandra:

Alexandra is now supporting individuals and couples as they navigate their own paths to parenthood through her work in alternative family building.

You can connect with her on Instagram:
@SonrisaFamilyBuilding

CONNECT with Lisa & get IVF COACHING SUPPORT

Download IVF Mindset Shift Guide https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.myflodesk.com

BOOK a complimentary DISCOVERY CALL

BOOK: ‘HOLD ON, BABY! A Soulful Guide to Navigating the Ups & Downs of Infertility & IVF.’

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WATCH on YOUTUBE

LISTEN to the PODCAST on Apple and Spotify:

**Please Rate the show & Subscribe! THANK YOU so much for your Reviews of the podcast!

Music Credit (Closing Song) by Sam Costigan. Follow her on Spotify and IG

In this episode of Soulful IVF, I welcome Kate Ryan for an honest and healing conversation about IVF, infertility, egg donor conception, pregnancy after loss, and nervous system healing.

Kate shares her powerful 6-year fertility journey, including 3 IUIs, 5 IVF cycles, diminished ovarian reserve, endometriosis, pregnancy loss, and the emotional rollercoaster of infertility treatment.

After years of setbacks, grief, and emotional burnout, Kate and her husband were led to consider egg donation, a path that ultimately brought them their son through one embryo and one successful transfer.

This conversation beautifully explores what happens emotionally during infertility — the fear, isolation, resentment, loss of self, and the constant waiting for “the other shoe to drop.”

Kate also vulnerably opens up about her experience with pregnancy anxiety after infertility and postpartum depression after finally becoming a mother, something so many women silently struggle with after fertility treatment.

Together, Kate and I dive into the healing practices that helped her reconnect with herself:

• meditation
• breathwork
• nervous system regulation
• movement and somatic healing
• music and sound healing
• creative writing
• Reiki and spiritual tools

Kate shares how these practices helped her move from survival mode into healing and inspired her beautiful book, The Story of Us, a children’s book that celebrates all paths to family building, including assisted reproduction and donor conception.

This episode also includes a beautiful guided meditation and calming mantra practice to support women navigating IVF, infertility, pregnancy after loss, or motherhood after a long fertility journey.

If you are looking for fertility mindset support, emotional healing during IVF, or hope after infertility, this episode is for you.

What We Cover in This Episode

• IVF support and infertility healing
• 3 IUIs and 5 IVF cycles
• diminished ovarian reserve and endometriosis
• pregnancy loss and fear after infertility
• egg donor conception journey
• one embryo, one transfer success story
• pregnancy after infertility anxiety
• postpartum depression after IVF
• nervous system regulation during fertility treatment
• meditation and breathwork for IVF stress
• fertility mindset and trust
• healing through creativity and sound
• all paths to motherhood and family building

Resources + Connect with Kate: Explore Kate’s book, free breathwork, meditations, and her Intentionality in Infertility course at:
storyofus.love

CONNECT with Lisa & get IVF COACHING SUPPORT

Download IVF Mindset Shift Guide https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.myflodesk.com

BOOK a complimentary DISCOVERY CALL

BOOK: ‘HOLD ON, BABY! A Soulful Guide to Navigating the Ups & Downs of Infertility & IVF.’

INSTAGRAM

WATCH on YOUTUBE

LISTEN to the PODCAST on Apple and Spotify:

**Please Rate the show & Subscribe! THANK YOU so much for your Reviews of the podcast!

Music Credit (Closing Song) by Sam Costigan. Follow her on Spotify and IG

In this heartfelt and healing conversation, I’m joined by Jennifer Edmonds, founder of Element Pilates and Yoga, based in Sydney, Australia.

Jennifer shares her powerful personal fertility journey — from being told she had gone through early menopause, to navigating IVF, loss, secondary infertility, and ultimately discovering the profound impact of fertility yoga, breathwork, meditation, and nervous system regulation.

This episode is for the woman who feels like she has been doing everything right… the appointments, the supplements, the protocols, the pushing… and still feels disconnected from her body and herself.

Together, we explore what happens when we shift from doing to being, from forcing to trusting, and from control to possibility.

This is a conversation about healing, rest, body trust, and remembering that your life does not need to be placed on hold while you walk this path.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Jennifer’s deeply personal fertility story, including IVF, miscarriage, and natural conception
• Being diagnosed with early menopause and the emotional impact of that news
• How fertility yoga became the missing piece in her journey
• The connection between stress, cortisol, sleep, and hormone health
• Why high-achieving women often struggle on the fertility path
• The nervous system’s role in conception and healing
• The power of slowing down and asking your body what she truly needs
• Rebuilding trust after feeling like your body has “failed”
• Why rest is productive and essential
• The mindset shift from doing more to allowing more
• Holding onto joy and not postponing your life during IVF
• Trusting in possibility, timing, and your baby’s path to you
• Mantras and practices that helped Jennifer stay grounded

BIO:

Jennifer is a Yoga, Pilates, Meditation & Breathwork teacher who specializes in fertility & women’s health. During a long & difficult fertility journey of her own, Jennifer eventually found the practice of Fertility Yoga. This practice was able to ease her anxiety while TTC, relieve chronic insomnia, re-balance a thyroid condition…and eventually it helped her to fall pregnant naturally. She now runs an online business, Element Pilates & Yoga, helping women all over the world to overcome fertility challenges & find their way to motherhood.

Connect with Jennifer https://www.elementpilatesyoga.com/

Get her free fertility yoga guide: https://jennifer-edmonds.mykajabi.com/fertilityyogaguide

CONNECT with Lisa & get IVF COACHING SUPPORT

Download IVF Mindset Shift Guide https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.myflodesk.com

BOOK a complimentary DISCOVERY CALL

BOOK: ‘HOLD ON, BABY! A Soulful Guide to Navigating the Ups & Downs of Infertility & IVF.’

INSTAGRAM

WATCH on YOUTUBE

LISTEN to the PODCAST on Apple and Spotify:

**Please Rate the show & Subscribe! THANK YOU so much for your Reviews of the podcast!

Music Credit (Closing Song) by Sam Costigan. Follow her on Spotify and IG