The past ten months filing in on Family Matters have been a change of pace from covering daily news, but hosting the segment for TV and radio has been a welcoming and rewarding experience.

Before heading on maternity leave with baby number two, I wanted share what stories resonated most with our viewers and reveal some of my own takeaways.

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While we’ve covered stories from pregnancy and parenting, to divorce, aging, and even genetic testing, of all the stories we’ve covered since September, our two most popular stories, according to the number of online page views, both relate to surrogacy.

Our most popular story was about an Alberta man who became a single dad by choice after an eight-year surrogacy journey. Our second most popular story was about a surrogacy delivery that left an Alberta family feeling like they weren’t parents.

Stories about pregnancy, infertility and babies dominated our top views, including new Canadian pregnancy guidelines, highly sensitive children, and an Alberta mom frustrated that her breastfeeding baby needed a paid ticket for a show.

One of my own biggest takeaways is that so many of our friends, colleagues, and people in the community are struggling to conceive a baby. The lengths that some people endure to have a child is heartbreaking, but sometimes inspiring.

One story that stands out was about an Edmonton woman who pumped and donated her breast milk for three months following the loss of her baby at 20.5 weeks. She and her husband had been trying for five years to conceive. At the time of the interview, I was early into my own pregnancy and speaking to Stephanie Murphy reinforced how fortunate I am.

Another story I found inspiring was about an Alberta woman with five kids who transitioned to a man. The way the kids reacted to their parents telling them ‘mom feels more like a dad’ shows the acceptance of children.

I’ve also realized that most parents are struggling privately with some sort of an issue.

For example, we asked people on Facebook whether any parent had a child who was considered ‘highly sensitive’ and the response was overwhelming.

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Many parents reached out privately to say our coverage of the topic helped them realize they weren’t alone. We had a similar response to a story about kids stumbling onto pornography online. 

Since taking over in September, I’ve been fortunate to help share some incredibly raw and heartbreaking stories. Thank you to everyone for your support.

Global News Morning anchor Erin Chalmers will be taking over Family Matters for the summer before Laurel Gregory returns in September. Keep in touch!

Top 10 Family Matters stories based on page views

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