As told to Kathleen Guthrie Woods

We’re doing something a little different this week.

I met Michele DeMarco a few years ago, and we quickly bonded over shared experiences of overcoming life-threatening illnesses and being childless not by choice. She told me much of her story, but I didn’t know the full extent of what she went through until she recently published “Choosing Life: The Ultimate Sacrifice” on Medium.com.

Since she went public with her story of having to choose between her life and that of her unborn child’s, she’s received an outpouring of support from friends and strangers, and this has helped her along on her path toward healing and acceptance. “I can’t tell you how (surprisingly) great it’s been to put it out there,” she wrote to me in an email after I praised her bravery. “I’ve received incredible notes and comments from people—men included—about it, and, in some cases, their similar experiences. That, for me, is why I did it,” she said.

I hope you’ll take time to read her story, and maybe add your comments here or reach out to Michele directly at micheledemarco.com.

Then, I hope you’ll consider taking the next step in your healing by sharing your story, here, with us.

Where are you on your journey? Are your wounds raw? Have you made some progress toward accepting a life without children? We can all benefit from hearing about your experiences, plus we’d like to support you. Please visit the Our Stories page to get more information and the questionnaire, and consider sharing your story with women who truly understand what you’re going through.

Did you know Kathleen Guthrie Woods is getting ready to tell her own story? The Mother of All Dilemmas follows her journey of pursuing being a single mother then embracing a life without children, and explores the reasons our society still presumes to calculate a woman’s worth based on whether or not she’s a mother. Keep an eye on LifeWithoutBaby.com for announcements about the book’s release.