If you’ve been hanging out on this blog, then you’ll know we did IVF for Big Munch and Toddler Munch. At the time of realising we needed to do IVF, I was extremely private about having to start this journey. It was due to my fertility-infertility make up. I confided in a few friends and even fewer family members. I felt embarrassed and ashamed that I couldn’t have children naturally.
So this week, via the blog, Twitter and Instagram I’m championing two things. Firstly, if you have a fertility-infertility journey to talk about, and if you’re ready, please share this. The more we walk about our own experiences the more we will remove the stigma. Secondly, if you happen to be going through IVF or about to start then please seek the right support for you. It’s a brave step but it will be worth it. You are only looking after yourself.
To support National Fertility Awareness Week UK (beyond it’s official dates of 31 October to 6 November 2016) here’s my round-up of how I’ve shared our IVF story in the hope of it raising awareness of the unpredictable journey of wanting a baby.
Our IVF journey – I guess one of the reasons I started a blog was to have a forum to talk about our IVF experience. I ended up sharing our journey in four parts. Part five is on its way. I have been overwhelmed with the support from Lucky Things readers, friends, family and my amazing Instagram community. They have all encouraged me to be open about the IVF phase of our life. Now that I’m more open about this, it also led to opportunities to feature our experience and my learning points on other blogs.
Seven things not to say to someone who’s going through IVF – I wrote this post before publishing our IVF journey on Lucky Things. The aim of this post was to support those who were or are going through IVF but more importantly those around them who end up saying things that may have an adverse effect. It’s hard not knowing what to say to someone who is desperate to have a baby but who is having to fight obstacles. Some people feel it’s better to say something but sometimes it’s best not to try to make the situation ‘feel better’. I still have people say to me, “Oh but you never know, you could still have a baby naturally, it does happen to lots of people after they’ve done IVF”. Sorry, no. Trust me, it won’t be happening. I am not being dramatic. In my case it is not going to happen naturally. Things don’t have a way of getting from A to B. Fact.
Ten things I learned on our IVF journey – guest post for HonestMum.com This blog post for Vicki’s blogzine listed some things to help others going through IVF. Again, you don’t have to be in the IVF space to read these blog posts. It’s about increasing everyone’s awareness of what IVF involves. Most of us know at least one person who has gone through IVF.
What is it really like…going through IVF treatment – guest post for MotherhoodTheRealDeal.com I loved the honesty of Talya’s interview questions. They also made me think about our experience. It is always quite touching writing about our journey. Some of it feels like it was happening just the other day.
Another guest post is appearing soon on IVFstories.co.uk I really respect Amy’s work on this site. She has brought together a range of heart-touching IVF stories. If only I had access to this kind of online support when I was going through our IVF treatment.
We did our IVF treatment with CRGH in London.
I’ll be featuring more blog posts on the different parts of the IVF experience on Lucky Things in the near future.
If you would like to talk about sharing your fertility-IVF story on Lucky Things, please drop me a line.
x Sunita