The home of Lucy and DavidBoydis scattered with Paw Patrol toys, tractors and cars all belonging to their son Will who is almost four.
His nine month old sister Sophie is obsessed with her brother and pretty much giggles all day long at his antics. A very normal family home which does not show the horrific and lonely journey the couple underwent to conceive their second child.
Having had a normal pregnancy on their first child, albeit he was born prematurely early at 32 weeks, the Drumcondra couple believed their journey to conceive a second child would be similarly easy.
“When it doesn’t happen, you’re hit with a cartwheel of emotions, why is this happening now, what has gone wrong, and why us?”
The young couple were told they were facing secondary infertility, when someone is having trouble either conceiving or carrying a second or subsequent baby to term.
This is a very common crisis that faces many couples, with as many as one in seven couples in Ireland struggling with the experience. Up to 40 per cent of the couples who attend SIMSIVF are experiencing secondary infertility.
Going through infertility and multiple pregnancy losses is an arduous physical and emotional journey, the cycles of hope and joy are mummified by the fear and expectation of disappointment.
After three miscarriages, the couple decided to go down the route of IVF. Those miscarriages were devastating. After the first lost pregnancy, the couple grieved, and allowed themselves to process their loss.A few months later another pregnancy followed by a miscarriage at six weeks.
“We were battered emotionally, we were afraid to feelany joy with a positive pregnancy test, living in dread and then dealing with another heartache. We only told both sets of parents and a close friend, all of whom were wonderfully supportive. We are all close and they were a Godsend to us during those dark months,” added Lucy.
But Lucy herself worked as a nurse manager at SIMSIVF clinic in Dublin. On the one hand, the treatment and testing procedures she understood but she found it difficult to bring her private problems into her workplace and open up to colleagues.
However, it did mean she could empathise with her clients at the clinic. But it was at her own IVF clinic that Lucy’s fertility issue was discovered.
“The team at SIMS are incredible,” she noted, “They are so thorough with such expertise, and it was here that I was diagnosed with a rare congenital condition called uterus didelphys, which effectively means I have two uteruses.
Lucy has a rare congenital condition called uterus didelphys, which is also called double uterus. In these cases, the woman has two uteruses. “One of the side effects of this double uterus is not being able tocarry a baby to full term. Will was delivered at 32 weeks,” she said.
After their third miscarriage, the couple proceeded with investigations and ultimately decided to try IVF. During investigations, two of the clinic’s stenographers found access to Lucy’s second uterus which previously could not be located.
In May 2023, the couple had their first IVF cycle which resulted in a failed cycle. Another painful loss the Lucy and David, another blow to already low emotional state.
In August 2023, they did a frozen embryo transfer into Lucy’s second uterus and got a positive pregnancy result. And one thing they both felt was fear, fear of another miscarriage, or early delivery.
“We should have been elated but instead we were pensive, just waiting for something to go wrong. I will never forget the months that followed, we both just looked at calendar, as every week passes,” said David. “Your hope builds when you get past 20 weeks, then 24 weeks, and every week until you realise your baby had a good chance of surviving! That was our pregnancy journey on Sophie.”
“Once I got over about the 30-week mark,” said Lucy, “I could breathe again and relax a bit more as the fear of miscarrying had passed but then I was worrying about preterm labour.
At 38 weeks, after an elective Caesarean section, their lovely baby daughter Sophie was born. “It was a no drama birth and we were thrilled it was a girl, as all our siblings in each side have either all boys or all girls! Finally, we felt true joy and relief.”
But the couple would not negate the emotional pain, the disappointment, physical pain and financial strain that so many couples in Ireland experience in their efforts to conceive.
The couple thanked the team at the IVF clinic in Dublin for their support and expertise, the team at The Coombe Maternity Hospital under Consultant Dr Mark Hehir and their close family and friends.
The anxiety and loneliness of those dark years trying to conceive have been replaced by the joyful anxiety of checking for upcoming teeth, vaccinations with the sound of Cocomelon and Paw Patrol in the background!
Lucy and David’s journey is one of many journeys captured in SIMS IVF ‘Love in Real Life’ and is available at https://www.sims.ie/love-in-real-life
Contact SIMS IVF at Clonskeagh 01 208 0710 Swords01 807 2732 and Cork 021 441 0900
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