When Lauren and her husband Steve set out to create the family they always dreamed of, they are hit with a barrage of unexpected medical diagnoses, each one more devastating than the last. After a series of invasive fertility tests, the couple comes face to face with the final diagnosis of a chromosome disorder so rare there are only 50 known families who have it worldwide: Genetic children would never be possible for Lauren. Not ready to give up their dream, Lauren and Steve soon find themselves walking the completely unknown path toward egg donation. As Lauren contemplates issues such as not being genetically connected to her future children, and how she would explain her children’s conception to them, old family wounds of estrangement from her famous actor father resurface. Wrestling with questions like, Is it love or DNA that makes a family, while edging towards reconciliation with her body and her father, Lauren finds herself in an existential crisis that resolves when she “almost nearly” dies during the birth of her first child.
MOTHER NURTURE is a story of love, loss, healing, and kinship, and shows that although you might not have the family you imagined, sometimes you get the family you were meant to have—when you were meant to have it.
Chapters have been published in several anthologies including:
Shaking the Tree (2022)
Three Minus One (She Writes Press, 2015)
Year in Ink, Vol 13 (San Diego Writers, Ink, 2018)
Year in Ink, Vol 11 (San Diego Writers, Ink, 2016)
ADVANCE PRAISE
What people are saying about MOTHER NURTURE
JESSICA ZUCKER, PHD.
Psychologist and author of
I HAD A MISCARRIAGE:
A Memoir, a Movement
(Feminist Press + Penguin Random House Audio)
As a psychologist specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health and the creator of the #IHadAMiscarriage movement, I am frequently the witness to others’ grief and deepest fears.
What Lauren Cross has accomplished with Mother Nurture is both unique and universal. Her unusual family background propels her on an equally unusual and complicated road to motherhood—but she unites readers with her insight and compassion while addressing existential questions about what makes a family.
This moving memoir is a love story that will guide people at all stages of egg/embryo donation, but also serves the wider pregnancy loss and infertility community. It is essential reading for anyone interested in reproduction.
JULIE MARIE
Author of the HAPPY TOGETHER collection of books
Lauren takes readers on a captivating journey through love, loss, motherhood, and everything in between. As a mother through egg donation, I found myself entranced by Mother Nurture, this book is a must-read for anyone who has been diagnosed with infertility or loves someone who has.
LAURA L. ENGEL
Author of You’ll Forget This Ever Happened – Secrets, Shame and Adoption in the 1960s (She Writes Press)
Mother Nurture. That brilliant title grabbed me and once I read the suspenseful first pages, I could not put this book down.
Author Lauren Cross has written her incredible story and it is unlike any other I have read. It flows beautifully with seamless transitions, as Lauren allows us to walk alongside her experiencing the ups and downs of her life. After she is told the devastating news she cannot become pregnant, her lifelong dreams of becoming a mother are shattered. We cry along with her and champion her in the many trials that await her, all the while witnessing the tender underside of Lauren’s life.
There are magical moments in this book and excruciating moments as well. You will laugh and you will cry. You will cheer for the strength and resolve this young woman exhibits. And best yet, you will not want this amazing book to end.
Readers will learn so much from this important memoir told with raw and engaging details because it is by far one of the most real and exact descriptions of what the journey of infertility and non-traditional family building is all about. Lauren’s beautiful story, told with honesty, compassion, and truth, is without doubt a love story that will warm your heart.
CAMILLE GUATY
Actress, activist, and mother through egg donation
It’s hard to put into words the instinctual connection I felt when reading Mother Nurture. It’s as if someone was telling my story—although different, somehow I found myself attached to every moment. Maybe it was Lauren’s vulnerability or perhaps her bold honesty in sharing deep truths about her journey to motherhood. Her bravery made me feel close to her, as we revisited our trauma together. As I closed the book, I felt a huge sense of celebration for us as mothers and as infertility warriors. Thank you, Lauren, for telling your story.
MARNA GATLIN
Founder and Executive Director of Parents Via Egg Donation (PVED) and co-author of
LET’S TALK ABOUT EGG DONATION
Words like brutal, beautiful, painfully honest, real, gut wrenching, powerful, genuine, tender, and raw come to mind when I describe Lauren Cross who is probably one of the bravest badass reproductive warriors on the planet.
In her book, Mother Nurture, Lauren shares her personal story about her journey through the jungles of infertility in the most real, authentic, raw, and beautiful way that only Lauren can do, taking the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotion.
Lauren describes her diagnosis, her grief, fear, frustration, and finally complete and utter love as she creates and builds her family through egg donation, all the while experiencing the incredible healing process throughout her journey.
I’ve never loved a memoir more than I do this one—chock full of wisdom for every intended parent attempting to create their family.
carole lieberwilkins, M.A., M.F.T.
Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in third-party reproduction and adoption,
and co-author of
LET’S TALK ABOUT EGG DONATION
Lauren Cross has created a memoir which describes her darkest and her most jubilant days. She recounts the horror of a miscarriage with such detail the reader feels as if they are experiencing the psychic, emotional and physical pain of the loss. Lest that sound too horrific to tolerate, she also takes us through the joyful experiences of meeting her husband. I loved walking through Paris with her as a very young woman, meeting Steve and following them through the escapades of a new and young couple in the City of Love.
Lauren ultimately became a mom to three children by collaborating with a woman who provided the healthy eggs to replace hers, which, she discovered, carried a chromosomal problem that would prevent her from conceiving a healthy child. Having become an advocate for the reproductively challenged, Lauren discusses the issues few want to be open about, including egg donation and pregnancy loss. Mother Nurture is riveting; I wanted to turn each page rapidly, even when I knew what was going to happen. And for those looking for camaraderie of the fertility challenged, she’ll embrace you tightly with her empathy and depth of understanding.
Mother Nurture is a one of a kind memoir it part because it encompasses the losses and rewards of all kinds, not flinching from the grief but absolutely steeped in insight and gratitude.
Caroline G.
Beta reader
No two paths to motherhood are identical and Lauren Cross captures the struggles and challenges of infertility, loss, and egg donation in her beautiful written memoir, Mother Nurture. In this insightful book, Lauren shines a light on fertility struggles and bridges the silent gap that so many experience as they navigate these struggles alone. She offers compassion to those experiencing similar challenges, and offers wisdom and understanding to the loved ones who know someone currently going struggling with fertility issues. Lauren truly brings the reader into the pain, the triumph, and the million emotions in between, as she shares her intimate journey to becoming a mother. I highly recommend this book to anyone going through fertility struggles and to all of their friends and family. This book helped me understand my own family member’s struggles much more intimately, and I will be a better support because of this new understanding.
