In February 2009 we had our 1^st ectopic pregnancy, this resulted in emergency surgery and my left fallopian tube being removed. Not long after, I was diagnosed with endometriosis as well. I had surgeries to remove the endometriosis and had Zoladex for a year, as well as other treatments. We decided to start trying to get pregnant again, even though we knew it would be a struggle.

In January 2017, after years of hoping every month, we found out we were pregnant again after a trip to the doctors to be referred to the Hewitt Centre for tests. We were over the moon. As we had an ectopic pregnancy in the past, I was advised to go to the EPAU when I was around 6 weeks pregnant, to check everything was okay. They couldn’t see a foetal pole or yolk sac, and said it may just be too early and they needed to check my hCG. The next morning we got a call to say I needed to go back ASAP. I was devastated as I just knew something was wrong. They told us my hCG was 26,000 and that they should see something on the scan. We waited to be scanned and were told they saw something in my right ovary. We were taken back to EPAU and told the devastating news that our baby was in my right ovary and that I was going down to surgery ASAP. We were utterly heartbroken, the surgeon Mr Kirwan was amazing and promised to do his best to save my ovary in case we did IVF in the future, and he did. I really struggled with the loss and the fact that we couldn’t have a baby naturally anymore. The Honeysuckle Team referred me to have counselling which really helped me to grieve and be mentally ready to start our IVF journey. I was referred for IVF, and as we were private patients, we could go when we felt ready.

In May 2017, I made the call and was booked for our first consultation with Mr Drakeley. We couldn’t wait to get started but I’ve never been so nervous, I was so worried we wouldn’t get our Rainbow. When I came round after egg collection we were told they collected 5 eggs, and I found out weeks later that Dr Lewis Nancarrow did my egg collection, and it was his first ever one! I was disappointed we never had more eggs, but kept telling myself that it only takes one. We got the call off the embryologist the next morning to say 4 of our eggs had fertilised, we were so happy. We were booked in for a day 5 transfer. When we arrived for transfer, we were told that 2 of our embryos didn’t make it and 1 was really good and would be transferred. The other embryo would be watched until day 6 to see if it could be frozen.

The next 2 weeks were a roller-coaster of emotions. I convinced myself that we were going to get a negative result. On 20^th September 2017, we woke at about 6 am to test, we were so nervous, as soon as I dipped the test, 2 lines showed up straight away. I couldn’t believe it, our only embryo had stuck, and our other one didn’t make it to freeze. We were on cloud 9, but we were still cautious, going back to the Hewitt Centre for our 7 week scan was so scary. We got to see our baby’s heartbeat, it was the best feeling in the world! We were going to have our Rainbow.

Our baby girl Reeva was born on 14^th May 2018 at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. She has made us so so happy, she is just perfect and without the help of the Hewitt Centre, I honestly don’t know what we would have done. We will be forever grateful for everything they have done for us, in helping our dreams come true.

Thank you so so much.

Jacqueline & Mark & Reeva