Case Studies
COUPLE CELEBRATE TENTH ANNIVERSARY WITH BABIES THEY PLANNED ON WEDDING DAY
When twins Mason and Maya Smith arrived in the world in March 2010 it was the end of a ten year wait for parents Joanne and Michael Smith from Elm near Wisbech.
"We decided to start a family on our wedding day!" laughs Joanne. "When nothing happened after two years we went to see our GP whose first piece of advice was for us to both give up smoking. We were both heavy smokers and giving up proved to be quite difficult but we both managed to kick the habit after about a year."
The couple carried on trying to start a family but even after they had stopped smoking nothing was happening so they went to the chemists and bought some ovulation predictor tests.
"I was lucky in that I have regular periods so we could be pretty certain when I was ovulating by using the kits and a calendar," says Joanne, "but still nothing was happening so we went back to our GP.
Their GP referred them to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn where Joanne and Michael underwent tests. It was established that Michael"s sperm had poor motility and the couple were then referred to Addenbrookes Hospital for further tests.
"The problem was that at the time Michael"s work took him abroad a lot so we often had to go for months between appointments which delayed the process," explains Joanne.
Finally in 2009 Joanne and Michael were referred directly to Bourn Hall and began their first cycle of treatment in May.
"I really enjoyed the process," says Joanne, "because I knew that everyone else going in to Bourn Hall was in the same boat as us."
Two weeks after the embryo transfer Joanne used the pregnancy tester kit Bourn Hall had given her and discovered she was pregnant – but she didn"t quite believe it.
"I was in quite a lot of pain," says Joanne, "and was reassured that was completely normal but it was not until we had the scan at seven weeks that I finally believed we were going to have a family and twins at that!"
Joanne has a twin brother herself so it was lovely to discover that her twins were a boy and a girl. "It was a bit of a shock though!" she says.
The staff at Bourn Hall were, says Joanne, "absolutely lovely and so helpful," and she still keeps in touch with them and sends cards and photos.
Husband Michael absolutely loves being a Dad says Joanne and has recently changed jobs so that he can be at home more to help look after the twins.
Joanne, who is shortly due to go back to work part-time, goes to a local twins group every week which conveniently is held in her village and she gets a lot of support from her mum who lives nearby and knows first-hand what it is like bringing up twins.
"I didn"t know what to expect before I had children," says Joanne, "but I have to say it is a lot easier than I thought and I absolutely love it! We have just celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and couldn"t have asked for a nicer present!"
