Meet Nicky, Kate and Phoebe

We started our journey in 2014 and it was a very long road for us. Our first hurdle was being a same sex female couple so we needed advice of how to proceed with starting our family.

We had an appointment with our GP who then referred us to Chester Hospital who at the time were working in partnership with the Hewitt Centre for us to attend for treatment. We attended appointments where the process was explained to us, we had counselling to ensure we were prepared for what was ahead and how we would feel if we were not successful with having a child. We as a couple decided we wanted to go ahead and try treatment with our first option being the process of IUI. With being in a same sex relationship, we needed to find a donor we were both happy with and we were offered a few profiles for us to choose from with the characteristics that were similar to my partner. We had time to read over them and chose the best one for us.

We had a number of IUI treatments at the Hewitt Centre over the course of four years with a break in treatment in 2015 when we got married. IUI was not working for us, and I had had a number of procedures including a Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy. After an appointment with the consultant in Chester we were transferred fully to the care of the Hewitt Centre to proceed with 2 funded rounds of IVF. Our previous IUI attempts were self-funded.

The first round of IVF was not successful after a number attempts at embryo transfer, we then went ahead with our second round and final funded round of IVF. During our second round we did embryo transfer but were unsuccessful and then Covid hit so our treatment was put on hold. During 2020 I turned 40 in the September so was worried my age would be against me. We had treatment in October 2020 and transferred the last two embryos we had.

After all the treatments we went through and turning 40 I was not expecting a positive result BUT we finally got it. I attended the Hewitt Centre for an early scan and we found out one of the embryos didn’t implant - but that one had. We were both happy and sad at that point but so grateful that I was pregnant.

In June 2021 at 7:13am we welcomed our daughter Phoebe into the world, she is our little miracle and now at 3 years old is all and more we hoped for. With everything we went through many downs in our treatment journey she now makes all the pain worthwhile with all the love we have in our family and it’s because of the Hewitt Centre making our dream possible.

To people starting out on this journey  - Don’t give up, keep going and through the bad days keep focused on what you want and hopefully it will happen for you like it has for us.

The treatment we received at the Hewitt Centre we will forever be grateful for. Every staff member we encountered from checking into the unit for appointments to the nurses and doctors who gave us advice and support we can’t thank them enough. Thank you for giving us our little miracle.