Rebecca Feasey is Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Communications at Bath Spa University, UK. She is the author of Mothers on Mothers: Maternal Readings of Popular Culture (2016), From Happy Homemaker to Desperate Housewives: Motherhood and Popular Television (2012) and Masculinity and Popular Television (2008).

1. Introduction: infertility and non-traditional family building.

2. Infertility: private confessions in a public arena.

3. Assisted reproduction: family, fortunes and fertility clinics.

4. Pregnancy loss: shame and silence over a shared experience.

5. Adoption: eligibility, assessment and selection.

6. Conclusion: future research directions.