We had a baby from our last embryo after trying for 12 years
A couple who were trying to have a family for 12 years are now celebrating the birth of their baby, the result of their 12th and final frozen embryo following IVF.
Emily Deeker, 43, and Will Glennon, 52, from Wiltshire, had their first daughter Olivia three years ago from their last-but-one frozen embryo. But after their long fertility journey, the couple decided to try to give their daughter a sibling from their last available embryo. And, after 12 years of treatments and several rounds of IVF, baby Harry was born in October to the delight of his 'deliriously happy' parents.
Emily, who is an editor for Sky News recalls feeling 'desperate' to be a mum when she started her fertility journey at the age of 30. Despite her initial optimism, she says the couple quickly learned the harsh reality that IVF isn’t a guaranteed solution.
"Will and I fell into the huge group of people who have 'unexplained' fertility issues," she explains. "At first you think that IVF is going to be the answer to your prayers, but often what you don't realise is that it doesn't work for everybody. We learned somewhere along the journey not to get our hopes up and to manage our expectations."
Speaking about how going through IVF impacted her relationship with husband, Will, who works for BBC Points West, Emily says: "He did all the injections for me over the 10 years. As a couple, we felt the need to keep going unless someone told us that it wasn't going to work.
"I can see how it can divide you and for some people it marks the end of an healthy relationship, but for us it has really united us and pulled us together. We were really private about it. When you're in the thick of the process you don't know what the end of the story is going to be."
Despite getting a positive test after 11 attempts, Emily says her fertility struggle affected her emotionally during her pregnancy. "I think long-term IVF robs you of the joy of pregnancy," she explains. "We waited a long time before we told people and it is only when the baby is here that you actually believe in it."
Olivia arrived in 2021 and when she turned two, the couple decided to use their very last embryo stored at the Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM).
"We absolutely didn't think that it would end in a successful pregnancy because we had to do so many rounds of treatment to get our little girl," says Emily. "If that 12th and final frozen embryo hadn’t matured to become Harry we would have been grateful just to have our beautiful Olivia after such a long wait. I was already 42 by then so if we were going to try for another baby, I knew time was running out.
"We weren't really expecting to get that lucky again," Emily adds. "When we found out it had worked again and then we found out we were going to have a little boy, all of our dreams came true."
So finally, in October this year, baby Harry joined the family. "It just feels like he was meant to be," Emily says. "All of the pain and the perseverance over the years was all worth it. We are overjoyed. Olivia is besotted, and tells us constantly, 'Harry is my best friend.'"
Now the couple are looking forward to their first Christmas as a family of four. "The thing that kept us going was the belief that one day that would be us," Emily says. "It is the determination that one day we would be able to celebrate with our children at Christmas. We still have moments where we look at each other and think, 'Gosh, is this real?' We put our lives on hold for 12 years to have them both. We want them to know how wanted they were."
For anyone going through their own fertility journey, Emily has some words of advice: "I would urge anyone with fertility issues to be patient and keep trying – if they possibly can – because our own perseverance did finally pay off, although I appreciate we are among the lucky ones, given that people sometimes run out of hope, money or strength and can only go so far.
“Obviously nobody wants to be going to a fertility clinic in the first place," she continues. "But if you do have to go to one, you want to have faith in them. It says a huge amount about the team at BCRM that we stayed with them throughout our entire, very long IVF journey. We always felt that if treatment was going to work for us anywhere, it would work there – and in the end it did."
Whether you're considering embarking on IVF or have decided to end your fertility treatment, for advice and support, visit the Fertility Network UK.
Read more about pregnancy and birth:
I became a mum-of-three overnight after five years of fertility struggles (Yahoo Life UK, 6-min read)
I had no idea I had two wombs until a scan during my second pregnancy (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
I gave birth to three supersized babies, one weighed more than a 10-person Christmas turkey (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
