Dixie Chicks' infertility battle

by auditioning contributor Sara

One song from the Dixie Chicks new CD, Taking the Long Way, strikes especially close to home for sisters & bandmates Martie Maguire and Emily Robison. "So Hard (When It Doesn’t Come Easy)" was inspired by their struggles to get pregnant. Martie told ABC News, "Emily and I have dealt with the same issue, infertility, and miscarriage and the whole gamut. You grow up as a woman thinking you’re going to have a child and that it’s just kind of your God-given right to the next step. And then when it doesn’t happen, you’re shocked and saddened, and it’s such an emotional journey to go on."
Emily adds, "I think you go through almost every emotion. I know my husband felt guilty. I know I felt guilty. For a moment you sit there and think if this doesn’t happen, will he love me any less?"

Martie and Emily both conceived their children– fraternal twin daughters Eva and Kathleen, 2, for Martie, and son Gus, 3 1/2, and twins Henry & Julianna, 13 months, for Emily– through in vitro fertilization. They are eager to speak out about their struggles because of the prejudice they have faced. Martie reveals a particularly painful encounter: "Someone the other day asked me if twins ran in my family. When I told them I did in vitro they said, ‘Oh, so you took the easy way.’ I couldn’t believe they said that."

Source: ABC News and Frontpage Publicity

Comments

I am so thrilled whenever I hear celebrities speaking about their struggles with infertility. It affects so many people, and yet it is still so stigmatized in our society (taking “the easy way”? Are you kidding? I’d call having sex “the easy way”!) As an infertile woman, I’m proud of them for speaking out and raising awareness.

- Molly on June 13th, 2006

Good for them! Just one more reason for me to buy this album. As part of a couple who has been TTC for a year now, I’m sure that song will make me cry!

Glad they are speaking out on such a taboo topic.

- BebeDreamer on June 13th, 2006

Taking the easy way? I thought it was the hard way. People can be so cruel!

- NicoleMarie aka Cole on June 13th, 2006

Yeah, “Easy Way”? I’d highly doubt going in for numerous appointments, receiving in vitro and hoping that it takes and carrying & delivering TWINS was the “easy way” for any woman to take!!

- BebeDreamer on June 13th, 2006

What kills me though is so many women go through it yet all these 15, 16,and 17 years can pop them out like candy! It’s ashame.

- joy on June 13th, 2006

I am not much of a country music fan but I really admire this groups moxie.

- landroverdisco on June 13th, 2006

I really like hearing celebrities being open about their struggles with infertility. I’m glad each of them were able to have the children that they so desired.
How is IVF the easy way? Geesh, here I thought having sex was fun and simple.

- Lorus on June 13th, 2006

Ditto Molly.

IVF can hardly be the “easy way”. Nothing is farther from the truth.

However, Martie and Emily are the lucky ones as treatment worked for them.

- Principesa on June 13th, 2006

If money is no object I wouldn’t put it pass certain celebrities to try and get pregnant for a couple of months the old-fashioned way and then give up and attempt in-vitro since the cost is not an issue for them. Most people use in-vitro (or adoption) as their last resort because it is so expensive. In this sense I bet some celebrities do take the “easy way out.”

- Pheebs on June 13th, 2006

There is NOTHING easy about infertility OR invirto…Days of our lives is doing s story right now about some couple doing invtro and making it sound so easy I had to turn the channel I got so angry.

I have 3 beautiful children, but I also have lost 4 angels. It was ahrd for me to have my kids. Because they are close in age I get comments all the time how it must be easy for me to have kids or how fetile I am. Yea, the progesterone shots for weeks on end and numourous doctors appointments are real “easy”.

I STILL am mad at the dixie chicks about what they said and how they handles things a few years back. The radio stations in my city still wont play them. I wont by their CD…but I do admire them coming forward about their infertiliy battles. Although I knew about it when Emily had Gus.

- krewcat on June 14th, 2006

Pheebs,

I can assure you that adoption WAS our last resort, famous or not.

And there is nothing easy about infertility, either. There’s nothing easy about spreading your legs and showing your cooter to every white coat with an idea of why you can’t get pregnant. Or shooting yourself with hormones. Or having your body cut open during emergency surgery due to an ectopic pregnancy. And worse, losing pregnancy after pregnancy.

You are right. It isn’t cheap. We would have opted for conception the old fashioned way but it wasn’t in the cards for us.

- Principesa on June 15th, 2006

Just wanted to say infertility is hardly the easy way out. Giving yourself shots, running to clinics in the morning and then oh it will maybe work. I admire these ladies for being so open about it. I never even knew of these struggles until I encountered them myself.

- Melissa on October 10th, 2007

I am so happy to read this article. As a woman struggling with infertility, I always love to hear about success.
I especially love to hear celebrities speak out to the whole world about their struggles. I think it kind of gives us all just a little bit more hope!
I can’t believe what that women said! “The easy way out.” People who have never experienced what we are going through could never understand what it is like. Hopefully one day they will…

- Tiffany on February 6th, 2008