When you decided the time was right to bring a child into your family, you probably felt some of life's most enjoyable emotions: hope, wonder, and eager anticipation. A bit of baby fever, perhaps? These are the kind of emotional experiences that can easily help partners become even closer to each other. The anticipation of future joy refreshes and revives relationships.

But for many, the road to parenthood is filled with more challenges than expected.

Whether your journey has led to assisted reproductive techniques or simply altered your life’s timing in disappointing ways, it’s likely you’ve started to feel entirely different emotions as a result: frustration and fear, among others.

Some couples will experience this episode of their lifelong story as an interesting sidebar. Others may find their lives and relationships so harshly impacted that it derails their plans altogether.

What are some of the things that make a difference? How do people get through emotionally challenging situations and keep growing together as a couple?

Recognizing your responses and reactions are normal can help. Difficulty in conceiving a successful pregnancy is clearly recognized as one of the greatest stressors a person can face. It’s safe to say that no one goes through “the fertility rollercoaster” without feeling it. But it’s also helpful to know your own limits -- draw the line and seek assistance when it starts to seem like your emotions are too unusual or out of control.

If getting or staying pregnant has become a challenge, you may eventually learn many more things about conception and pregnancy than the average person. But one of the most important facts to understand right away is that there are countless issues that can cause problems with fertility and early pregnancy -- and the statistical breakdown of those causes is split roughly evenly between male and female factors, a combination of both, or undiagnosable situations.

Knowing this fact is important to reduce any tendency to waste time and energy with blame. Couples who fan the flames of blame will find their relationships strained even more.

One way to snuff out blame is to seek medical consultation early on in the journey. You may find out there are simple tricks to getting pregnant that you didn’t already know. Or you might learn of some condition that is standing in the way of your baby-making dreams. Many such conditions are treatable, and often without having to use the costliest forms of treatment, especially if diagnosed early.

This chapter of your story will result in valuable lessons that can enrich your future, whether that’s with a child or not. Much of how you come through it as a couple will depend on your sense of a unified goal, your ability to respect each other’s ways of coping, and the ongoing cultivation of mindful and compassionate interactions. And, as always, specialized help is available if you need additional support.