Sarah Roberts
Sarah Roberts (she/her) is the founder of The Empty Cradle, a counselling and support service for women who are childless not by choice (CNBC). Sarah is a grief counsellor, a Gateway Reignite Facilitator and completing a Masters of Social Work, focusing on women’s transition to permanent involuntary childlessness. Following 10 years of trying to conceive, Sarah is childless due to infertility and circumstances. She was surprised by the immense grief, isolation and empathic failure that so many of us experience. This planted in her a desire to understand why, and support women to navigate this disenfranchised experience, integrate the losses and create lives of meaning and connection. Sarah’s background as a counsellor and community development worker informs her practice, which centres our shared lived experiences as the foundation for research, policy and advocacy. Whilst we grapple with the loss of motherhood and life circumstances we didn’t choose, Sarah has come to understand childlessness as a unique way of being in the world and a valuable expression of adult womanhood. As a CNBC advocate, Sarah offers community education and is working with a grassroots network in Australia to establish a national advocacy organization to promote the rights, wellbeing and inclusion of people experiencing involuntary childlessness. We contribute significantly to community life.
