Case Studies
ESSEX COUPLE DEFY THE ODDS WITH ‘MIRACLE BABY’
When baby Mia was born to Essex couple Lisa and Matthew Lawry in July they called her their "little miracle," because she was born against all the odds.
After the Lawrys, from Mayland near Maldon, had been trying to start a family for three years Lisa, an Intensive Care Nurse, was encouraged to go to her GP for advice by a concerned colleague who advised that they might need some help. The GP sent both Lisa and Matthew for blood tests and they were surprised to discover that the tests revealed a problem on both sides.
"The tests showed that I had a low progesterone rate and that my husband had a low sperm count so intervention was definitely going to be needed," explains Lisa.
The couple were referred to a consultant gynaecologist at St Peter"s Hospital in Maldon where more tests were carried out. They were then offered a referral for IVF treatment at a specialist clinic and, after doing her research, Lisa opted for Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridgeshire.
"I did my research and concluded that Bourn Hall was definitely the best place to go. They had been the original pioneers of IVF and had a good success rate. We went for an open day at Bourn Hall Clinic with a group of other couples where the staff gave us a really informative talk and slideshow detailing what to expect if we opted to go ahead with treatment. They made it clear that it wasn"t for the faint-hearted but we took it all in our stride."
Bourn Hall"s first step was to put Lisa on the combined pill to regulate her periods and then in October they harvested some of her eggs.
"I was told that only three eggs had been harvested which is far less than some women and so I wondered whether perhaps our chances were slim and didn"t dare hold out too much hope but my nurse was absolutely brilliant and so encouraging.
"Bourn Hall used the ICSI procedure to fertilise my eggs and then we had a completely nerve-wracking 24 hours wait before we phoned back to find out what had happened. We were then told that two of the embryos were of very good quality so we could go ahead with embryo transfer. Not long after that we found out I was pregnant!"
Nine months later Lisa gave birth to Mia and she reveals that she and Matthew, an accountant, are just so grateful for the gift of parenthood.
"Bourn Hall had told us when we went in to see them they knew that our chances of having a family were very low because of the contributing factors on both sides. So now when I look at my beautiful daughter I just thank God and Bourn Hall for her. She is our little miracle."
