Guest post: My journey to motherhood by Jo (Part 2)

Yesterday Jo started to tell her story of her struggles into motherhood, not an easy journey at all and one which included 6 miscarriages – you can read that story here in her guest post part 1, today she is back to continue that journey which sees her and Adam having to fund their IVF treatment themselves.

Back over to Jo….

“A few months went by with no success which isn’t uncommon for a lot of women. But in April 2015, after 11 months of trying to conceive, I went to our GP to see if they could help. We were advised that our local NHS trust no longer funded fertility treatment so we were given no option but pay to go private.

Our initial appointment at the fertility clinic was very overwhelming. We listened to the pros and cons of IVF and the various options available to us. Even though we are both fit and healthy we were told our success rate would be between 35% – 45%. We left the clinic with a list of blood tests to have done and Adam also had to give a sperm sample. The results of Adam’s test came back that he had an infection within his sperm, very common in men and easily treatable with antibiotics, but severe enough to mean our chances of falling pregnant naturally were now very slim and we agreed that IVF was our best option.

In August 2015 we started the process. Over the next 4 weeks I had to inject myself twice daily to stimulate my egg production and be scanned every few weeks to check on the progress. Then came the egg collection. I was put under sedation so my doctor could surgically remove my eggs. My medication had worked as they managed to retrieve 13 eggs in total. The following day we were informed that 10 of these eggs had fertilised after being mixed with Adams sperm. Over the next 4 days we lost a few of the embryos that weren’t strong enough to carry on and by day 5 (the longest they’ll wait to do the transfer) we had 5 very healthy embryos remaining. It was decided that we would have 2 embryos transferred into me, therefore increasing our chances of success. The remaining 3 embryos were frozen for any future cycles. The transfer process was fascinating, I was awake throughout and Adam was by my side and we watched on the screen as the embryos were implanted in me.

The next 2 weeks were hard. I was advised to not take a pregnancy test until 14 days after transfer and to continue on my medication. I am probably the most impatient person you’d ever meet and was driving myself (and everyone else) insane on a daily basis so on day 12 I decided to test. I had prepared myself for the IVF failing so I nearly fell off the toilet seat when I saw the result pregnant flash up on the screen – it had worked first time! I called the clinic and was booked in for a scan in 3 week’s time.

This was the longest 3 weeks of our lives but finally the day came, 12th October 2015, and we finally saw our little miracle on screen for the first time. Over the next few weeks I had regular scans to check progress, and still continued my medication and infusions as part of my miscarriage treatment, which will still continuing alongside the IVF.

I’ll admit that I had down days. Although everything was going well, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for myself. I didn’t want to be covered in bruises from all the injections, or have headaches and nausea from all the pills, I just wanted to be normal but as my tummy grew I put these thoughts to the back of my head and concentrated on how blessed we were that it had worked for us. There’s so many women who can’t have children, even after IVF, so I was one of the lucky ones.

In January 2016 I reached the 20-week mark and was taken off all my medication. In total I had injected myself 186 times and taken approx. 360 tablets. But all that became a distant memory when on 1st June 2016 we welcomed our son, Maxwell James, into the world. Our journey was over, we were finally parents.

It took us 5 ½ years, 6 miscarriages and 1 round of IVF to get our miracle baby. During this time I had days where I nearly gave up. But I’m a fighter, and I knew deep down that I’d do whatever it took to achieve my dream.

Max is almost 4 months old now and we can’t imagine life without him. He’s bought so much joy into our world and one day we’ll sit him down and tell him just how special he really is.

Miscarriages are still seen as such a taboo subject and women often suffer in silence. This shouldn’t be the case. Losing a baby is truly horrific and something that will stay with you for life but talking openly about them will help you to make peace. My 6 miscarriages have made me the strong woman that I am today and make me strive to ensure that I give Max the best possible upbringing in life.”

Thanks for sharing your story Jo.