First Christmas as a family, thank you Bourn Hall!
19 Dec 2024
“We spent many Christmases saying to each other ‘maybe next year we will have another stocking to fill’ or ‘maybe next year we will take our bundle of joy to see Father Christmas’,” says Kristy. “This year our wishes have come true.”
IUI brings hope and sadness
Kristy and her wife Gabbie started IVF treatment at Bourn Hall in 2023. The couple decided to egg share to enable them both to have treatment.
The couple had both wanted to carry a baby but had agreed that Kristy would have treatment first as she is a year older than Gabbie.
“The festive period was filled with “what ifs” and a mix of anxiety and excitement,” Kristy remembers.
The couple had previously tried to conceive at Bourn Hall with IUI, using donor sperm before switching to IVF. “We tried three rounds of IUI,” says Kristy. “The first round worked but sadly I miscarried, and then the next two rounds didn’t take.”
Egg sharing made IVF affordable
“We had to look at our options; we had a certain amount put aside, but it might not stretch to both of us having treatment,” says Kristy. Then we saw the egg sharing option which made the IVF more affordable, around £1,500.”
The idea of being donors and ‘giving something back’ also appealed to them.
“We were going to use donor sperm to help us create our family, so I was quite comfortable with donating some of my eggs,” says Kristy.
“I was going through all that treatment anyway and Bourn Hall didn’t feel like a ‘hospital’ with all the hospital smells; it just felt really homely.“
Sadly, Kristy did not produce enough eggs to share with another couple.
“Bourn Hall suspected that I had PCOS, so they were extra careful with my dosages so as not to overstimulate my ovaries. I needed 12 eggs to be able to donate, but unfortunately we only got 11 which meant I couldn’t share them.
“I was really upset about it at the time. I had written my donor message and had seen from ‘both sides’ what the donor process involves and had set my mind on it, but I am at peace with it now.”
A surprise at Christmas
The couple were delighted when Kristy fell pregnant after their first IVF attempt and last year – on Christmas Eve – they had a private scan to find out the gender of their baby. They then found a very festive way of breaking the news to their families.
“Both of our families spent the day together, so we laid the table on Christmas Day with a special cracker,” says Kristy. “We pulled the cracker to reveal we would be welcoming a baby boy. Knowing 2024 would be our year to give our parents a new grandchild was amazing.”
Filled with joy
“This year, we will have our beautiful Eden to celebrate Christmas with. We recently watched the Netflix film Joy, it felt surreal watching a film about the founders of Bourn Hall while cuddling our own Bourn Hall baby. We will forever be grateful for IVF for making all our Christmas wishes come true.”
Gabbie says: “When I first ‘came out’ I didn’t think that being a mum was necessarily going to be an option for me. Now there are moments when we lie in bed just looking at baby Eden thinking ‘wow, this is everything we have worked for’.”
Now the couple are planning for Gabbie to have IVF treatment at Bourn Hall – and she also plans to egg share if she can.
“Absolutely one hundred per cent I want to donate some of my eggs,” says Gabbie. “Even more so as Kristy was unable to. It feels important for us to ‘give something back’ to the community that helped us create our own family.”
“IVF is just incredible, how it can help so many families,” concludes Kristy. “Hopefully Gabbie will be able to carry a baby and use the same donor, so the two children will be partly related as well. This would not be an option for us if it wasn’t for Bourn Hall.”
More information
If you would like to find out more about egg sharing.
If you are same-sex couple Bourn Hall offers many treatment options
Find out how can we help you
Book a consultation call with our team to find out how Bourn Hall can help you on your fertility journey
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“We went to an open evening at Bourn Hall Wickford and came away feeling really positive about the place. The staff were really friendly and the presentation was clear about the statistics regarding success rates and live birth rates; their data was very transparent. We came away feeling like we would really be looked after.”
Katy and Leigh are parents to Charlie after IVF
Patient 2023
“We chose to make an appointment at Bourn Hall Wickford because of the favourable reviews. When we got there and met the staff they were just so lovely, making us feel welcome and explaining to us what tests would need to be done and what our options were; we just thought ‘yes, let’s get the ball rolling!”
Jess and Fran are mums to Nathan after IVF with donor sperm
Patient 2023