News & Blog
Guests at the party held last year to celebrate the milestone of 40 years of IVF babies ‘made in Bristol’ included one family whose own IVF ‘baby’ is now 23 years old. His parents were among many attendees who grabbed the chance to tell the team at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM) how very grateful they are for their support to have a baby at a time when it looked like that might not happen. “Motherhood has been all I hoped it would be and more,” said dental nurse, Sharon. She also shared her recollections of what it was like going through fertility treatment at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM) two and a half decades ago.
When a couple with an IVF daughter decided to share the story of their fertility treatment to give hope to others struggling to have a baby they were also keen to highlight the courage of the medical staff who supported them during the pandemic. Lizzie said: “We feel they were very brave, simply in carrying on doing their jobs at Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine in that climate.
For most people, Christmas is a lovely time of celebration and family get-togethers and is especially focussed on children and the excitement and pleasure that parents and grandparents associate with it. But if you’ve been trying unsuccessfully for a long time and are not yet lucky enough to have the baby you long for, then this time of year can trigger a range of painful feelings. It can be a heart breaking reminder of your lack of a baby, or a second child that you’ve always wanted.
Three years after the birth of the baby girl created from their last-but-one frozen embryo out of 12, Sky News editor Emily Deeker and husband, BBC Points West’s Will Glennon, are celebrating the arrival of their “last chance” baby, little Harry – the happy ending to their mammoth 12 year fertility journey.
Mum of two Dominique Durrant is keen to encourage people to extend kindness to expectant mothers, and to avoid jumping to conclusions about why a couple doesn’t have a family. “You see pregnant women every day,” she said, “but you never know what they might have gone through to get there – for many of us it is a long hard journey. Dominique, a hospital admissions co-ordinator from Gloucester, offered to share her story after she and husband Robert, a roofer, attended Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine’s celebration of 40 years of ‘Made in Bristol’ babies.