Often times, we hear beautiful and courageous stories from mothers who come in for their baby’s Newborn Shoot. These mothers, having gone through a truly daunting journey in their life, in hopes of their little miracle baby. The concept of rainbow baby is such an impactful one, because of the strength and perseverance these mothers have shown when all was against them.
We got a chance to interview one awe-inspiring mum, Corinne, on her own journey with failed fertility treatments, a miscarriage to finally giving birth to a gorgeous baby girl, Megan! Today, she shares her story!
Having shared with us before that you have had multiple tries with various fertility methods, would you be able to tell us how you got started on this journey?
Corinne: After getting married for slightly over a year, at the age of 32, i decided to go for a gynae check and was very surprised to be diagnosed with low ovarian reserve, after a few blood tests and was advised to go for IUI/IVF if I wish to have a baby.
I was advised to do it ASAP since with the super low number of eggs left inside of me, time was definitely not in my favour. At that point of time, I had never heard of Low Ovarian Reserve and couldn’t understand what the difference between IUI/IVF was so it was both shocking and clueless when I embarked on this journey.
Could you tell us more about your experience, from your understanding of your fertility problems and how it has all come together in the end with the birth of your daughter?
I then start to seek for second opinions and start to read up more about what low ovarian reserve , IVF, IUI were all about. My husband once joked that I could start a blog on the reviews/my experiences on all those famous gynaes/ IVF specialists/famous TCM/ Chinese Sensei because I have visited so many over that timespan. It was a really lonely and arduous – almost 4 years long – journey with 5 failed IUIs , 2 IVFs and a miscarriage. I started with a lot of self blame – “is it because I didn’t take good care of my health?” – , self-pity – “so much so that when I saw people posting pregnancy announcements , I would get all teary and the self-pity starts” – and anger – “why ME?”.
I started to read up more on such topics and success stories on how people with Low Ovarian Reserve can have babies (which is not a lot to be honest, but I hang on to those few success stories I could find online) and began to adjust my diet and lifestyle so that I could increase my chances of having a successful IVF.
I also started to form my own “support group” to cheer myself on in this long forlorn journey. I would try to reach out to mummies who have went through successful IVFs , relied a lot on my religion to keep myself going and to have faith and hope in this journey.
In the Newborn Shoot with us, the themes chosen etc the rainbow butterflies and Wonder Woman setups, how is that a reflection of the journey you and your family shared?
To both my husband and I, when we saw the rainbow theme, it really called out to us. Megan (our daughter) is the rainbow that comes after the rain. It was tough to go through a miscarriage when you have tried so hard and went through so many rounds of IUIs and IVF. It sort of dashes your hopes and it was tough to pick ourselves up again and said “It’s okay, we will try again”.
Hence, we really wanted to have the rainbow theme for her. As for Wonder Woman, I guess many of us grew up imagining ourselves in the role of a costumed superhero like Wonder Woman. Little did we know that years down the road, we’d be introduced to becoming a real superhero called MOM. But for me, I guess as I look back on my journey, sometimes I feel like I am a Wonder Woman (or rather that was what my husband said) to be able to have underwent so many rounds of jabs, injections, cutting sugar off of my diet, diligently taking supplements and putting my career aside to focus on something that I was told the success rate of is very little. It’s easier to give up than to continue and press on.
In Singapore, there is a percentage of women who have difficulty getting pregnant as well. What would be your best support message for them?
1) Read up more. Many a time, fear comes when we are ignorant or clueless. I would say read up more and if possible, find out the cause of it. Even if you cannot find out the cause of your infertility, you can still read up on women who face similar problems and how they manage to succeed in having a baby.
2) Have faith, have hope. It will be good if you have a religion. I read the bible a lot and I re-connected with God through prayers and the readings from the bible and I have to say it is my religion that kept my faith and hope high in this journey.
3) Be Thankful still. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, count our blessings. Be thankful of a supportive husband, a supportive friend, family, be thankful that you still have a job that can provide you with income to go through such procedures etc. I feel that it is when we are thankful, we will have the peace and contentment in our hearts. And with such mindset, the body is less stress and it helps.
4) Do what you are comfortable with. There will be so many friends telling you different things like eat this, do that, see this gynae etc. and up to a point, you will be bombarded with so much information and things to try on. I feel, just follow your heart and do what you are comfortable with. I stick to the gynae and TCM physician whom I felt I could connect with and felt most comfortable with. It might not be my friend’s top choice but it’s okay. I will do what I deemed as a fit for myself.
5) Form a support group, if you can. It will be good to have a few numbers you can call when the going get tough and you need some cheering from friends or mummies who went through similar journey. At least, it worked for me.
We hope that with these unfiltered and beautiful experience shared by mummy Corinne, it would be an inspiring post to all of us, and especially those who are on this very journey in their lives, and we hope that it will , at least, bring a sense of peace.
Much like Corinne, we have parents who embrace the significant meaning behind the rainbow themed shoots, and it represents a truly beautiful meaning for them. These themes are also for parents who love the vividness of colours in the rainbow as well! Take a look at some of our rainbow themed concepts below!
A heartfelt thank you to Corinne, for being so kind to share her experiences, and to be a voice of inspiration to all!
Article By ~ Abigail Lazarus
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