​It is hard to believe that the school year is already over. In so many ways it went by very quickly, but during those harsh winter months, it felt like these warm temperatures would never arrive.
For many of us, this time of year comes with many mixed emotions.

Our children have completed yet another year of school and another year of growth, achievements and experiences. It is a period of transition.

A period, which for many, brings about a lot of anxiety and uncertainty as to what is coming next.

For many of us, this is a busy time where it seems there is too much to do, and never enough time in the day. All good things, mind you. End of the year recitals, tournaments, graduation ceremonies. Organizing for the summer, and the dreaded task of getting our children ready for overnight camp.

Now I say dreaded with quite a bit of sarcasm, actually. I do not hate the process. Quite the opposite. What I do not like is the feeling of disorganization and complete chaos in my home. The process is in fact one which I enjoy, as I share it with my children. All the shopping, labeling, choosing what stuff is going to camp this year. It is an exciting time, for everyone, despite the mayhem.

But it seems as if not all parents enjoy the process of preparing for overnight camp quite the way I do. I recently came across an advertisement for a company that for a small fee will come into your home and pack your children for overnight camp. For some reason, as tedious as we all know the process can be, it really bothered me that one would choose to have someone else do this type of work for them. Many people have gardeners or housekeepers or hire someone to shovel their snow, to do tasks that they themselves do not wish to do. So I asked myself…how is this any different?

Upon further pondering, I realized why I was so miffed. Getting ready for overnight camp with my children is an extremely important time for everyone in my home. It provides numerous opportunities for quality time, intimate discussions, and for many issues to be addressed.

Why is it important to pack for overnight camp together?

1. It is a time to instill confidence in our children. If our energy is positive, so will theirs be.
2. It is a time where we encourage our children to try new things. As we are packing bathing suits, we can suggest the idea that they try out for swim team, or canoeing, if it is something they have never tried before and are reluctant to do for the first time. Try everything once, is a motto often heard in our home. This applies to camp activities as well.
3. It is a time to review different scenarios with our children, such as homesickness, bullying, or anything else, which might make them uneasy or sad. This is a great time to discuss what if scenarios with our kids and review possible ways to tackle these problems.
4. It is a time for us to provide to our children the ammunition they need to face certain situations head on. Children can be encouraged to keep a daily journal of what they are proud of, what was difficult for them, and how they handled themselves in certain challenging situations.
   
5. It is time to encourage our children to be their own best advocate. Summer camp is a terrific opportunity for children to learn assertiveness and develop their self-esteem. They do not have their parents to vent to at the end of every day. They need to learn to stand up for themselves. This is often a difficult reality for both kids and parents. But while packing for camp, parents can review with their children what their strengths are and discuss who to go to if they are sick or if they need help.

So I suppose given adequate resources, we can hire somebody to do just about anything for us. But I choose to use these resources for the non-emotional, more superficial tasks in my life, which need doing. As a working mom, I crave the opportunities to have these discussions with my children at moments which are real and not contrived. Armed and ready, I send them off. Then I cry a little bit. And then I pray that the only call I ever receive from camp is because my kids are asking to stay longer.

In early April 2014, the Health Minister of Ontario announced that after 5 years of IVF funding proposals and recommendations, the Ontario government has finally agreed to pay for one round of an IVF cycle, per couple, including only one embryo transfer, beginning as early as 2015.

So how is it that under the Liberal government, Ontario is only prepared to cover the cost of one IVF cycle, excluding the costs of medications? How is it that this province is so behind in helping women and men achieve their goals of having a family?

Government funding for expenses related to IVF treatment has been trending for some time. The provinces of Quebec and Manitoba already partially pay for these costs. More specifically, the Quebec government will pay for all expenses for three to six rounds of IVF, while Manitoba will allow IVF patients a tax credit toward their expenses.

The rationale behind any government funding is that by helping cover these costs, the expectation is that the frequency of multiple births will decline in their province. If the government pays for the costs of egg retrievals and embryo transfers, the pressure is taken off couples to implant more than one embryo at a time, thereby eliminating or minimizing the amount of multiple births per year. Couples would not feel the need to get more bang for their buck, so to speak, each time they do an IVF cycle. This would ultimately cut down health care costs such as the length of stay in hospital for both mother and babies and/or long-term therapies for babies born prematurely with issues (cognitive lags, physical delays, etc.).

There are mixed feelings by many as to whether or not treatment for infertility should be paid for at all by the government.

At present, the Ontario government pays for IVF only for women who have fully blocked fallopian tubes. To many, myself included, the picking and choosing of what qualifies as a legitimate reason for covering the cost of IVF or fertility treatment, is a Pandora’s Box that should be kept closed.

So women with blocked fallopian tubes get covered. How about women with endometriosis? Nope. Or polycystic ovarian syndrome? Nope. Why does one barriersupersede all the others? The bottom line is this. There are many reasons, medical reasons, why women are not getting pregnant. Reasons that these women cannot control. So why is it that coverage is given to some women and not to others? Is this not a form of discrimination? Why does the government have a right to ‘choose’ which involuntary medical diagnoses warrant coverage?

Just to reiterate…infertility is not a CHOICE. But yet it has never been treated like a disease or a disorder either. If it were, the costs to treat it would be absorbed by the government, no questions asked, as are the costs to treat cancer or patients with heart disease. The men and women who experience infertility do so because somewhere along the line, they have begun to explore the reasons why pregnancy is not happening for them, likely after having tried unsuccessfully for some time to get pregnant.

Again, unlike elective plastic surgery or the choice to have a vasectomy or get one’s tubes tied, having to go the route of IVF is never, ever, one’s choice. It is a situation where thousands of men and women find themselves when they would do anything and try everything necessary to have a family.

The hope is that this new funding formula will at least partially bridge the gap. All women will be given equal opportunity to try an IVF cycle, regardless of their diagnosis.

But as we have the prospect of IVF funding teasing us, as the possibility of its implementation gets dangled in front of our nose, it can just as easily, and just as quickly, be taken away. It remains to be seen if the province of Ontario will even proceed. Given the uncertainty of this week’s election, will IVF funding ever really get off the ground?

Image: Sperm And Egg Cell image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.