If you're based in New York City, this is your resource for Choice Motherhood

Thanks again to our long-time sponsor California Cryobank, we've got FIVE workshops lining up for 2012. Here's where we are likely to host them, and when.

Long-time Choice Mom support Patricia Mendell, who works with single women in the New York City area who are building families on their own, has announced a new monthly support group to help families (single and coupled) create healthy families using egg, sperm and embryo donation, as well as surrogacy.

When it was time to start finding coordinators to help Choice Moms do the work we do with the community, the first person I thought of was Kali, who has quietly been offering suggestions and moderation help for several years. Now you, too, can meet her as she steps out of the shadows to help manage our vast East Coast resources.

I have three requests in my Inbox, two of them quite unusual. Two of them for media-related projects. One related to a known donor for the San Fran area.

From Janine Sarna-Jones, a Certified Professional Organizer who talked with women at our New York Choice Mom networking event:

There are several excellent FREE conversations happening in NYC about fertility, moderated by Carolyn Berger, LCSW. Check out the list.

Our Choice Mom-friendly therapist Patricia Mendell let us know about a special event this weekend in NYC for families (single and married) built through donor conception. There is also a second note here about her telephone group discussion this week on talking about donor conception.

Given the large number of questions on the Choice Mom discussion boards about fertility, and the fact that many of us don't realize until late in the game how fragile our fertility is, I couldn't do this topic justice on the website and in our networking events without our Choice Mom fertility experts.

When you are feeling isolated, angry, depressed or confused about the Choice Mom path, the discussion boards have become a good place to vent and share. But sometimes we need someone who not only understands the Thinking to Being stages, but is specifically trained to talk with us about our emotions.

These mental health therapists have an interest in working with single women about grief, fertility, adoption, and other aspects of the Choice Mom journey. They have been recommended by Choice Moms.

Are you struggling (alone) with the weight of deciding whether to persevere with costly fertility treatments? There are mental health counselors who specialize in the fertility industry who are here to help you. This is great, detailed advice from one of them.

A woman on the Choice Mom discussion board admitted that now that she had finally been able to conceive she was filled with worry about having a healthy pregnancy. This is not an uncommon reaction. I asked Joann Galst, a long-time adviser to the Choice Mom community and a New York City-based therapist, to respond.

One great New York City-area resource for is the Infertility and Adoption Counseling Center, run by Joni Mantell. Here are its workshops planned for Fall 2010.

I couldn't do what I do on ChoiceMoms.org, and at our networking events, without the support of sponsors who specifically value the Choice Mom community. At the July 2010 New York City event, East Coast Fertility's Dr. Michael Zinger talked with women about their fertility concerns. Here's what he's offered us so far:

When I lived in my one bedroom floor-through apartment in New York City with my young daughter, I did start to feel overrun in that first year by the THINGS she needed. I was frugal, but still had the diaper pail, stroller, Baby Bjorn, exersaucer, 3-in-1 travel crib (used everyday), and a growing collection of plastic chewy items. So it was no surprise when the organizing experts at the New York City Choice Mom event drew a crowd.

We know that it is essential to understand your ovulation schedule in order to pinpoint the short window of success for insemination timing. But women often learn -- late in the process -- that temperature charting and ovulation detection kits don't always tell you what is important for you to know.

Long-time Choice Mom supporter California Cryobank announced at the New York City event in July 2010 that it was opening a New York branch office in the fall. It will be located across from Grand Central Station, at 369 Lexington. The benefit for Choice Moms is....

I lived in New York City 18 years, so it's always a little odd for me to fly in and out of town for a weekend workshop, as I've done the last two visits. But we do pack a lot of information-sharing and support into these events, and the NYC event held in July 2010 was quite dense with resources. Here is some of what we shared.

I am happy to announce that Choice Moms® is launching a growing library of regional resource guides for the Choice Mom community. The first guide is now available, with its ongoing collection of insights and tips offered by experts and single women specifically from the New York City area.

The latest addition to the regional guides now being offered on ChoiceMoms.org is for Choice Moms in the Washington D.C. area. Click here for the guide-to-date. I welcome your contributions to the service providers and experts in that area who you think Choice Moms should be aware of.

Since I've been keeping track of website traffic for two years now, I thought it would be interesting to share information about where we tend to live, what information we tend to look for on the website, and what's been happening since I relaunched the website with its new format in February 2010.

Nothing beats the recommendation of fellow Choice Moms about the doctors they entrusted to help them conceive. Following is a list of Choice Mom-recommended fertility specialists, with live links to fertility clinics that have supported in the past year the Choice Mom resources you find on this website and at our networking events. Use the comments field that follows to nominate your own favorites.

I am happy to report that we have a new option to create five informal coffeeshop gatherings in a few cities in 2011. I'm reinvigorating an inquiry into which cities have women most interested in contact that they're not otherwise getting.

We're building an audio library featuring the best of our Choosing Single Motherhood radio show and Choice Chat podcasts. You can order the first of this collection, "Choice Moms Answer the Tough Questions: Do I Have a Dad?" (formerly a CD product, available here for immediate $7 download).