Our patient’s story is an emotional testimony of her difficult journey to motherhood. It started out hopefully. But years of disappointment and grueling treatments followed. Despite the obstacles, she did not give up on her dream of a longed-for baby and found new hope at the Prague Fertility Centre. It was at our clinic that she found the understanding and support she needed so badly, so that at the end of her IVF journey she could have a bundle of joy in the form of a beautiful healthy baby girl. Her story symbolizes encouragement for all those going through similar hardships to not lose strength and believe that one day their desire for a child will come true.
Our story about our journey to have the baby we wanted started in November 2016, when my husband and I thought, we could try to have a baby naturally. What was our joy when we were successful the first time and in December, I found out I was pregnant. Unfortunately, our excitement didn’t last long and we lost the baby in January 2017. It was what is known as a chemical pregnancy, which is not uncommon, but that doesn’t mean that the overwhelming pain of loss we felt didn’t occur.
We were looking forward to our next pregnancy in December 2017. Again, it came out on the first try and everything seemed fine until January 2018. I had an ultrasound in the morning, spotted a little, but otherwise everything was normal, so I was given medication to make the spotting stop and went home. 5 hours later we had a spontaneous separation and lost the baby again. On the advice of the gynaecologist we had a genetic test and it turned out that the problem was a genetic chromosomal defect and therefore the likelihood of us conceiving a healthy baby was something around 40 %, so the IVF method was recommended.
We chose one of the clinics in Prague, but it was not a happy choice. The first doctor was very nice and helpful, but we had no coordinator assigned to us (only foreign patients had one due to the language barrier). Every time I called; I was switched around until finally someone who knew something about us answered. This alone was very frustrating. I underwent 2 egg retrievals, which were further fertilized and genetically tested. The first two transfers did not work out, and despite the fact that I had been under the care of my primary care physician since the first transfer, I only found out that I was entitled to a free consultation with a psychologist at the clinic after these two transfers. I took advantage of this opportunity, but even so, I could not regain my lost trust in this clinic.
After that, we took a break and tried to pull ourselves together mentally — especially me. I was under the care of a coach and a psychotherapist. At the beginning of 2020 we decided to move on, so we looked for a new clinic and luckily got a recommendation for Prague Fertility Centre. The first visit was very emotional. All the memories came flooding back and I couldn’t hold back the tears, although Dr. Švabíková’s approach was empathetic to the max and I felt she would do the impossible just to help us. So, we had the remaining 2 embryos from the previous clinic transferred and planned their joint transfer. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful again. Since we had no more embryos, I had to undergo another egg retrieval. The first collection went smoothly. The second one didn’t happen because my body stopped responding to the stimulation. The embryos were again sent for genetic testing. Then in April 2021 I found out that we had conceived naturally. Unfortunately, this baby did not survive either, his heart stopped beating at 8 weeks.
I processed another painful loss and tried to find the bright side of things. There were 2 positive things about this experience. The error this time was also in the genetics, which we had laboratory confirmation of. And then came the transfer on May 5, 2022, which was finally successful.
Our daughter was born on December 11, 2022. It was a premature birth by acute c‑section and I have the most beautiful scar from it. We experienced the greatest happiness in the world. So please don’t give up! You never know if the next attempt won’t be the successful one.
Jane & Paul
