A WORLD CHILDLESS WEEK 2025 WEBINAR
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Regret can be an emotion that many of us who are childless may struggle with at times. It’s a very normal human emotion, yet it can sometimes feel like a punishment for the decisions, circumstances and experiences that may have been part of our childless story. However, when unpacked self-compassionately, regret can be one of our most powerful teachers, guiding us towards a future more aligned with our deepest values.
Inspired by Sarah Roberts’ group-work on ‘Childlessness and Regret’, Daniel Pink’s book The Power of Regret, and Jody Day’s almost 15 years of experience working with childless individuals and groups, this webinar will introduce you to a tender approach to understanding how regret operates as part of your childless story, and how you can use it to help you, not torment you.
PANELLISTS
JODY DAY: Ireland
World Childless Week Ambassador
In 2011, I started Gateway Women, and through it, I’ve healed my childless heart and helped many others to do the same. Now in my early sixties, I’m journeying into childless elderhood with hopeful curiosity as I prepare to become a good ancestor. Often referred to as the ‘founder of the childless movement’ because of her work with Gateway Women since 2011, Jody is also the author of the ‘go-to’ book on healing from the heartbreak of childlessness, ‘Living the Life Unexpected: How to Find Hope, Meaning and a Fulfilling Future Without Children’ (Bluebird/PanMac). Chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2013 & awarded as UK Digital Woman of the Year in 2021, Jody’s a global thought leader on female involuntary childlessness, a psychotherapist, a 2017 and 2022 TEDx speaker, a founding and former board member at what is now the UK Charity Ageing Without Children, and a former Fellow in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School. After a lifetime in London, several years ago she moved to rural Ireland, and recently moved into her forever home by the Atlantic, where she’s working on finishing her first novel (featuring a childless heroine of course!) and midwifing the emerging Gateway Elderwomen project.
SARAH ROBERTS: Australia
World Childless Week Ambassador & Gateway Women Reignite Weekend Faciliator (Australia).
All our childless stories are precious and multi-layered. Mine includes bad timing, poor decisions, gentle recovery, a decade trying to conceive, many losses, and finally realising the life I thought I was living wasn’t the one I was in. My life and dreams were out of sync. In 2015, I gathered up my broken heart, my counselling and community work experience, and post-grad social work studies, to found The Empty Cradle, a service for women transitioning to permanent involuntary childlessness. As a lived experience advocate, I offer community education, training for fertility and mental health professionals, social policy activism and publicly wonder about non-parenting lives. If you’re here because your heart carries the broken ache of no children, and you’re looking for connection and inspiration about life – you’re in good hands and you are no longer alone.
