To What Extent is Social Support From One's Family Essential to Surviving the Rigors of the Infertility Treatment Process?

SOCIAL IMPACT OF INFERTILITY
Just Take a Vacation...
David and Darlene have been undergoing infertility treatment off and on for seven years with no success. They have completed a total of two IVF cycles, resulting in 6 and 7 Grade 1 embryos, respectively. (For a discussion of embryo and/or blastocyst grading, see Tucker, M. (n.d.) Morphological Scoring of Human Embryos and Its Relevance to Blastocyst Transfer retrieved from http://www(dot)ivf(dot)com/morphology.html). Neither fresh nor frozen embryo transfers have resulted in pregnancy, and they have begun to become disheartened.
The couple has been reluctant to discuss their infertility treatment with elders in the family who seem to be completely unable to fathom that a child can be conceived in a Petri dish. This is evident from the fact that, after numerous explanations of endometriosis, anti-sperm antibodies, and IVF to David's grandmother, she still insists that the problem is that the two are trying too hard. "Just take a vacation," she says. "Get baby-making off your minds and it'll happen naturally. That's how your father was conceived." Hours and hours of explanation did not seem to make a difference, so David and Darlene made a pact to forego any discussion of their infertility treatment with their families.
Case Assignment
Read the required readings for this module, and, after doing so, address the following questions in a 2-3 page paper.
To what extent is social support from one's family essential to surviving the rigors of the infertility treatment process? Please be sure to use the literature, as opposed to personal opinion, to support your response.
As David and Darlene's infertility counselor, what are three suggestions that you would make to the couple to make families gatherings a little easier. Be sure to identify specific coping strategies from the literature.
Assignment Expectations
After reading the required background materials for this module, write a paper in which you provide your responses to the specific questions that I have posed above.
LENGTH: 2-3 pages typed and double-spaced
The following items will be assessed in particular:
PRECISION: Each of the questions of the assignment is specifically addressed in the paper.
CLARITY: The paper reads clearly (i.e., it is not confusing) and is well-structured.
BREADTH: The paper presents appropriate breadth covering the questions of the assignment.
DEPTH: The paper presents points that lead to a deeper understanding of the matters and/or issues being discussed and integrates several points into coherent conclusions.
CRITICAL THINKING: You set aside your own personal biases and instead approach the subject matter using available scholarly evidence. You consider the strengths and weaknesses of competing arguments/perspectives on this topic. Having read these scholarly sources, you make a judgement as to the merit of the arguments presented therein.
NOTE: Please be sure to provide citations of sources consulted in preparing your paper in the body of the actual document itself (i.e., in addition to furnishing a reference list). Remember, any statement that you make that is not common knowledge or that originates from your synthesis or interpretation of materials that you have read must have a citation associated with it. For guidelines on in-text citations, visit the following web site: http://owl(dot)english(dot)purdue(dot)edu/owl/resource/560/02/