Sheinelle Jones has privately discussed fertility with some of her closest friends, and now the mom of three will allow cameras into the conversation for the first time.
Sunday’s MSNBC special Stories We Tell: The Fertility Secret has been a years-long passion project for Jones, 43, who has listened to her friends, including the six women of color featured in the documentary, share their experiences with challenges including IVF, surrogacy, pregnancy loss and uterine fibroids.
“I have poured my heart and soul into this project,” she tells PEOPLE (the TV Show!)‘s senior correspondent Jeremy Parsons. “And, the truth is, for years and years, I have behind closed doors confided with girlfriends and family members and frankly just [watched] them struggle. Whether it’s they haven’t found Mr. or Mrs. Right, they’re in their upper 30s or low 40s and they just don’t know should they freeze their eggs?, or [when there have been] health challenges like fibroids or surrogacy — like all these things that we know are happening, but we just don’t really talk about.”
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As an executive producer on the project, Jones feels it’s necessary to shine a light on issues experienced, often quietly or silently, by millions of women. “It is time to sit down on a couch and let’s just snuggle up and have a conversation. I think it’s time to lift all of these veils.”
The 3rd Hour of Today co-host hasn’t personally experienced infertility. Jones shares three children — son Kayin, 11, and twins Clara and Uche, 9 — with her husband Uche Ojeh. But the fact she hasn’t experienced this struggle firsthand doesn’t diminish her passion.
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“For me, so many women are in this place of what feels like a crisis for them,” Jones tells PEOPLE. “And I just want to be a helper. And that is my prayer. I just want to be a bridge and I want to be a vessel.”
Jones was partially motivated by a desire to share the stories of Black women, people of color who may not see themselves represented when the topic is discussed in the media. “I feel like we’re starting to see a little bit more about fertility, especially egg freezing and IVF,” she says. “But I also felt like, when it comes to women of color, I felt like I didn’t always see them in the conversation…”
She adds, “I felt like there was this gap between what I’m seeing in a public conversation and what I know I’m living behind closed doors with some of my friends.”
Asked why she thinks so many women suffer in silence, Jones has a few thoughts. “I don’t know if it’s shame or if it’s strength. I don’t know what it is that makes us feel like we can’t really talk about it,” she says.
“I think for all women, there’s this notion that we have to be strong. We celebrate strength, we celebrate resilience and so when we get knocked down … we almost feel like we have to hurry up and get back up,” she continues. “We have to tuck our pain and keep going, keep going to work, keep going to the gym, keep going to church, keep doing those things, day in and day out. But we almost don’t give ourselves time to grieve or to process because we’re doing what we know to do.”
Jones hopes her documentary will encourage more women to openly have these conversations and share their own experiences rather than “carrying this burden.”
She explains, “I didn’t want it to just turn into a textbook about medical issues. I want you to hear these women as human beings.”
