Author Talk: Deborah DiSesa Hirsch

Deborah DiSesa Hirsch will discuss her book, Counterfeit Mother, where she talks about making the difficult decision to use a donor to become a mother, her troubled feelings that her son didn't feel like hers once he was born, and her journey to learn and accept him as her child.

Hirsch was not alone. Many women have trouble connecting with their donor-conceived children. A 2020 study, Making the Child Mine, points out that, as more and more women are having children later in life (Hirsch was 47), using a donor may be the only way to have a child. But it's not easy. For Hirsch, it was hard and exhausting, and sometimes heart-breaking. In her book, Hirsch describes how women have used a range of strategies to enable them to establish their identity as a child's mother.

Hirsch is an award-winning journalist who writes articles to help others learn from her mistakes. They have been featured in The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, HealthDay.com and other regional and national publications.