Both of the eggs are mature, so that's good for Rochelle. You never know what's gonna happen to those two, you know? It may be that's the start of a new life. The dream of having a child seems the most natural thing in the world, but infertility affects nearly one in four couples at some stage in their lives. Do your best to hold as still as you can. OK? (GASPS) Ow. You start thinking about, 'If I did fall pregnant this month, when would the baby be due, 'and when could I have my baby shower?' For many, the realisation that there is a problem is the beginning of a journey filled with hope. (SOBS) OK. All over, love. Try to stay sure today. But it's a journey with no guarantee of success. Eight couples struggling with infertility have allowed us to follow their stories over the last two years. And this week, a new arrival is on its way for the Hills. Opening its mouth. See that? Yawned, gave a big yawn. While the Fatais, the Lucases and the Bennetts are still trying to conceive. If it's the news I'm expecting, I'm going to have a spa, and I'm gonna drink margaritas tonight. And we're joined by the Taylors, who are hoping that their frozen embryos will soon become another healthy child. What if this does work? How incredible, how lucky, how amazing, how wonderful! Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016. Do you wanna put it under the tree for me? Hang on. It's a heavy one. I can carry it. OK, it's like a brick. I told you. (CHUCKLES) Kingston! (CHUCKLES) Teresa and David tried for four years to have a baby brother or sister for Kingston before turning successfully to IVF, and Teresa is now halfway through her pregnancy. Hi. > Tonight we've got, I suppose, the 20-week scan. Every time we're, sort of, building up towards a scan or a, um... any of those, kind of, milestones as it comes through, you've always got that bit of a nagging, you know, we've had such a good run, um, in the actual IVF itself, through till now that there's that twang of it must ` our luck must be gonna run out. This scan, we could find out um, the baby's sex, but we've both battled away the thoughts of finding out. So, just shut your eyes when I do the top of the leg there. Look at this one. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) That's good. We didn't see anyway. It was a precaution, so you can just look up now. That's great. So your baby's measuring within two days of what your dates are, so that's` that's a good sign. So, we're looking straight on at the face here. See the wee face? < Two wee eyes. Little heart beating. This is the chest, and, of course, the spine. Opening its mouth. See that? Yawned, gave a big yawn. (CHUCKLES) Everything's working except the lungs now. We've seen everything really well and completed the anatomy scan, its little warrant of fitness. It's a relief. Dave will be relieved. All right. Well, you can say goodbye to this little baby for a few months. Bye. You can see it when it comes out, eh? Yeah. There you go. Thanks. Halfway. 20 weeks to go. < Yes, you're just over the halfway point, aren't you? Yup. And we didn't find out. (CHUCKLES) < And you didn't find out. GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC How are ya? Good. I have a lot of really amazing women surrounding me. Like, I know that they love this baby already. And I know that we're bringing this baby into, you know, a community. Yeah, we do, we just have this awesome, awesome, awesome support network. So we're just going to play one just really quick little game. Um, so, we'll hand you round the ribbon and the scissors, and you just have to cut off a length of ribbon that you think will fit around Teresa's belly. And then she'll come round, and we can measure and, um, see who got the closest guess. > It's, like, be kind, eh? Come on. (LAUGHS) It is a baby belly, not a beer belly. Oh my God. I'm sorry. LAUGHTER I think I overestimated how big your baby was. I'm not having three of them. I think Nana's one was perfect. > Well done, great-nana. Aw! What about ours? APPLAUSE, CHEERING Well done. I wanna hold one. APPLAUSE CONTINUES Um, 35 weeks now, so we've only got five weeks to go. Yup, which is crazy. It's, like, ridiculously fast. Yup, I reckon the baby will probably come a week early, which is the day before David's birthday. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC TINKLY MUSIC Natalie and Melvyn's unexplained infertility's lead them to intro-uterine insemination, but their first two attempts ended in failure, and they're now waiting for the results of their third. Yeah, I've had period pains pretty much all day, so I'm not feeling really... confident about my results tomorrow. My period is due tomorrow, so, um,... we'll see what happens. Um, yeah, I'm feeling pretty despondent. Just feels like it's never gonna happen anyway. Yeah, it's really nice that we're going out for lunch instead of just waiting at home for a phone call. When you start treatment, you're so optimistic, and you starting thinking about, 'If I did fall pregnant this month, when would the baby be due and when could I have my baby shower?' And then going through that whole disappointment of` of the... you know, of getting your period just takes everything away from you. And you feel like you've lost something that you never had, but you do feel like you've suffered this loss, and you just feel empty, and it sucks. It really really sucks. POIGNANT MUSIC You know, although we're` we're incredibly close and we talk about a lot of things, I'd be lying if I said this doesn't take its drain on your marriage or, um, on you emotionally. I think I'll sleep really nicely tonight either way, just because it's` I feel stressed now. I just feel it in my shoulders. Mm, a weight off. Yeah. CELL PHONE RINGS Hello, Natalie speaking. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS Hi. Yes, I'm OK to talk. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS You are joking me? Honestly, Jane, are you sure? Like, 100% sure? Oh my gosh. I can't even speak. OK. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. I'm pregnant. Really? Definitely? > Yes. Yes. Yes, I am. Oh my God. First ever, babe. (SNIFFLES) Oh my God. Yeah! TINKLY MUSIC (SOBS) I'm just in disbelief. It's OK. It's great. Oh my God. (SNIFFLES) Oh my gosh. It's been over seven years, month after month, negative, negative. You just... You prepare yourself for the worst and you just... I just did not see this coming. No way. And I'm pregnant. And it's the first time ever. I mean, we're pregnant. We, yeah. We are pregnant, and it's... it's amazing. It's amazing. I'm still in shock. I think... I think I need to take stock and process it and allow it to sink in before I can really start to enjoy it. I'm happy, obviously, but completely unexpected. TINKLY MUSIC 1 GENTLE KEYBOARD MUSIC Aw, the party's over. Party's over. Have a good holiday, everyone. Hansi and Alan have been trying to get pregnant using IVF with donor eggs, but the first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. A second attempt failed, and two weeks ago their final embryo was implanted ` an embryo with SER, a condition that gives them only a 10% chance of a pregnancy. We knew this was... that there was a really small chance of this working, but the reality is a lot different than knowing beforehand, so I'm feeling a bit gutted really. I just wish that the embryo hadn't thawed, so that we didn't have to even have to go through this part. I don't wanna be going through this part. It just sucks. The treatment cycle Hansi and Alan are waiting to hear the results of is their seventh attempt at IVF. The first six failed. For the last six years IVF has just ruled our life, and I'd just like to not... it to not rule our life. Mm. We're prepared for the worst news today. We're still gonna have to get our head around it if it has failed. It's not that we've given up hope of a baby, but we just... the IVF chapter maybe is done. Tonight if it's the news I'm expecting, I'm going to have a spa, and I'm gonna drink margaritas tonight. I'm just over it, and I just don't wanna keep doing the hard journey. CELL PHONE RINGS Hello? Oh, hi there. Is that Hansi? It is. Hansi, it's Helen from the clinic. How are you? I'm good, thanks. Good. Now, I've got your results here. Cool. Is it a good time? Sure, yup. Good. Congratulations. You are pregnant, with a very good pregnancy level. I'm just really... BOTH CHUCKLE Hey, Helen, I'm... I'm on the phone here as well. It's Alan here. Can you`? Hi, Alan. Can you just confirm that for me? I can. Positive pregnancy test with a level of 190. One-nine-oh. (CHUCKLES) Oh, thank you. That's so weird. Isn't that exciting? (CHUCKLES) It's just really` So, Alan, you can have a drink tonight, but Hansi can't. (LAUGHS) I'll make sure she doesn't. Water. I won't be drinking. (CHUCKLES) OK. Well done. All right. Bye. PHONE LINE CLICKS OFF I'm really shocked. Yeah! (LAUGHS) No, but I'm really shocked. I can't... (CHUCKLES) TINKLY MUSIC Cool. Our journey continues. MUSIC CONTINUES So, today we're booked in for a scan to check if the baby's got a heartbeat,... and I'm hoping for the best. I just don't wanna get, like, my hopes up, and then have to deal with all the grief stuff. Yeah. That's probably more. That sucks, but I don't think we're gonna have to do that. But if this pregnancy works, it's one baby. I'm not ever doing this again. Nah. Let's go see our baby. BIRDS CHIRP Hi. I'm doing your scan today. How are you? Good, thank you. Good. All right. Oh God. It's all gonna be good. > Well, we'll see. > I hope so. I'm just going to insert the probe now, OK? Yes! > (LAUGHS) > Thank you. > Thank the Lord. Is it growing, though? Yes. This is the, um, pregnancy sack here. Yup. Where's the heartbeat? This is your baby. This is the heartbeat. Wow, it's got big. I see it there. Yeah? Well done. And it's got bigger. < And it's definitely got bigger. I'm just gonna measure that wee bean. Oh! So happy. < So happy. Oh my goodness. I hadn't been nervous. I was only nervous for, like, 10 minutes here. Measuring beautifully at eight weeks, one day ` just exactly what it should be. Oh wow. Perfect. Fantastic. Go, bubbie. We finally get good news when we come here. Finally. Six years. < We're finally giving you good news. Six years and we're getting it. < Here's your picture. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC TINKLY MUSIC So, this afternoon we are, um... we've got three appointments with Fertility Associates, and one of those first is a counselling session. MUSIC CONTINUES Rochelle and Raymond are about to start a cycle of IVF, but their plans could be put on hold, as Rochelle's mother is seriously ill with end-stage renal failure and has to decide whether to have her remaining leg amputated or to stop receiving dialysis. So, that means that she'll have, um... (SOBS) days to weeks. And with all her medical, um, issues that she's experiencing, it's most likely to be days rather than weeks. She's, um... It's like my second mum, you know? Uh, yeah. First... First time that Rochelle introduced me to her, you know, she welcomed me into the family with open arms. Yeah, I just feel sad, you know? All Mums ever wanted for Raymond and I... is to have a family. You know, um, cos we've been together 18 years, so, you know, you would have thought within that period, we would have been able to achieve that. And it would have made her really happy, but, you know, she's also happy for us anyway, because we are still together, and we're happy, you know, together and she knows that she doesn't need to worry about me any more. (SNIFFLES) But, you know, I'd` I'd love her to meet a grandchild of hers from me. (SNIFFLES) SAD PIANO MUSIC So, yeah, we had our counselling session. That was really good. It reinforced just how strong Raymond and I are together. And we also talked about my mother and the current situation. So her recommendation is to talk to, um, Andrew just about the scheduling of everything. All right. Have a seat. Now, we're getting underway in August, aren't we? Maybe. There's a few things happening in my life at the moment, with my mother. She's very ill and, um, may be leaving us very soon. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, so I'm not sure about what the stress` So when the start date might be is a bit fluid at the moment. It could be, or just ` after talking to Margaret in counselling ` just to get some guidance from you whether you would recommend, you know, or how you would think that stress might... I think she might just wanna talk about the stress, if it's gonna affect her body, her hormone. Yeah. Uh, I don't think stress, per se, will make much difference how you... how your ovaries will react and the` It's more to do with how, um... how you'll cope individually and as a couple if you've got a lot of external pressure going on as well. So I think that's probably not so much a medical decision, but more a decision based on what else you've got going on. The first three weeks is actually pretty low-key. All we're going to be doing is putting you on the oral contraceptive pill. The idea behind that is that it helps reset the ovaries, so that when we stimulate the ovaries with the fertility drugs, we're going to hopefully maximise the number of follicles that we're going to recruit. Yeah. OK? That's for your drug instruction. In Rochelle and Raymond's case, the concern I have is that we are already dealing with a situation of modestly reduced egg reserves. And if it was another year or so before they undertook their treatment, that's only going to get worse, and Rochelle's gonna be yet another year older, and it's already taken them some time to get to this point. So I must say I'd be encouraging them to try and get underway sooner rather than later. But clearly, if there's, you know, too much stress going on with what's going on with Rochelle's mum, then a month or two's not going to matter. Timelines are unknown for us at the moment. I suppose if it wasn't any other time, I'd be really excited, but at the moment, I'm a little bit anxious just because it's like I want time to go quick for that reason, but I want it to slow down for other reasons, yeah. Today we started our first day of our cycle. And what has also happened today is... my mother has decided to... stop dialysis. So I've just been with her at the hospital,... um, with her last dialysis session. And, um... And, yeah, so that's... it's been a bit of a challenge. We, um, bought the unit an orchid,... just to say thank you and to, um... to have a memory of my mother there. (SNIFFLES) Um... (SNIFFLES) So it's a bit strange at the moment for me, because it's like one of us is starting on a journey to potentially a new beginning and one of us is... on a journey to... (SNIFFLES) to an ending. 1 GENTLE MUSIC BIRDS CHIRP OK, so, I dunno if you can see it ` I am starting to get a bump. The tiniest bump in the world, but it's pretty exciting. So yeah. Argh! CAR DOOR BEEPS Today is 12-week scan. 12-week scan. We've never got this far. No. It's great. I just wanna see it cos it's gonna look like an actual baby and not like a smudge. I just feel nervous. > Don't feel nervous. It's great. There's definitely a little heartbeat there. Oh God. Take a deep breath about that. That's so good. > < So there's the little heartbeat. Aw. < Head's up here. Little bottom's down there. It actually looks way more like a baby. > < Yeah, doesn't it? A cute little arm up by the face there. I see it! < Waving its arm. Is that its arm? Wow. Oh my goodness. < I wonder what you are. < Are you gonna find out? We say no. > < You don't? Yeah, no. I want it to be a surprise. > < It's a pretty fun surprise, huh. So, we can see two arms, two legs today. We'll look at that. That's good. > < Yup, basic good things, huh? So, we'll take a really close look at the heart and the rest of the anatomy at 20 weeks. Yup. But we can definitely let you know the ultrasound looks good today. That's so cool. > I'll give you all these little pictures as well. Just one where it looks like a baby and not` Yeah, something else. (CHUCKLES) Oh my God. Oh, it looks like a baby there. Doesn't it? Just before it started, I got real nervous. I'm like, 'Oh, what if we get bad news?' Yeah, cos it's, like, we went into that one earlier in the year, like, 100% positive that the baby was there, and it's, like, you went into that room, and blah. So from here down. Smashed down, like... (CHUCKLES) So I guess it's just... And now it's, like, yeah! GENTLE MUSIC TINKLY MUSIC CAR ENGINE REVS Um, over the weekend I had some pain on my right side, so that made me incredibly nervous. Um, I've hardly had any sleep. Yeah. So we're just gonna slip the probe in. OK. > There's the little gestational sack there, and just inside it, you can see a little shadow there. As we said, it's really early at this stage, so you don't get much detail. > Just on 4mm. Okey-doke. Right. So, still very early days. Um, we're seeing the right thing in the uterus. So there's a gestational sack and a little foetal pole. Couldn't pick up the foetal heart beating yet. Um, that will probably take another week, so we'll need to re-scan you then. OK. < And when we get past that sign, we know that you're on your way. OK. Yes. What we find is if we get to well past seven weeks and we don't see a foetal heart beating, we know that that pregnancy won't go on. We need a heartbeat. I'm relieved that they did see a foetal pulp, and she has confirmed that it's probably too small to see a lot at the moment, so I feel a lot better. I don't feel like I'm gonna go and celebrate or anything like that. I'm just... I'm just so scared to get my hopes up. We're here again for a second scan today. Uh, now, after the last scan results, uh, we got a phone call later on that afternoon. Um, and they did say that they just want us to know that it could go either way. And I kind of just have the opinion that whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, and there's nothing I can do to change it and try and accept... accept that, yeah. It's easier said than done, I guess, but, um, yeah, that's what I'm feeling at the moment. We're looking at the uterus there, and what we saw last time ` there's a little gestational sack. So, the little thing we saw inside,... but the unfortunate thing ` there hasn't been any change. < OK. So it's much clearer now what's going on ` nothing. It's not progressing, I'm afraid. < OK. That's the only way we can tell ` uh, just by watching ` and the news isn't good there. So, what happens now? We'll let you get dressed, and then we'll tell you, tell you what happens now, so... Yeah, so... Just exactly the same as before, except we haven't got that progress. That's how we can tell that it's not an ongoing one. I'm very sorry. OK. (SOBS) OK, let's get dressed. (SNIFFLES) POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC (SOBS) (SOBS, SNIFFLES) It's all over, love. Try to stay sure today. OK. POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES (SOBS) (SNIFFLES) When you can put two scans, uh, a week apart and see nothing changing, you know that the pregnancy's not going to go on. So... Yeah, so, the miscarriage process, there are different ways of managing it, and we have the, um, early pregnancy assessment unit, which will look after you through that. We will have one more formal scan that the early pregnancy clinic likes to have before they come to you. Yeah. Is there an amount of time that you've gotta wait after the miscarriage before you can, um, resume any treatment or...? < We usually like to know that the process, that you've recovered. < It's always nice to have at least one period after that, < so then you know that your whole system's back in order again, and then you can carry on trying. Unfortunately, this time, it's not worked out. Pretty horrible really. Real devastated. It's hard because as much as you try and prepare yourself for the worst, you just... you don't quite think it's gonna happen, and, um... and you still have a lot of dreams. And it's just... (SOBS) a lot of your thoughts were... were positive, and it's been a long time since we've been able to... to think positively about this whole stupid journey. And it's just processing that... that's not going to happen any more or not... not at this time. (SNIFFLES) So I think we just... Yeah, go sit in a dark room probably for the rest of the afternoon. I just` Yeah, I just wanna have a really really good cry. 1 GENTLE MUSIC Um, we met at a party. She was training to be a teacher, and I was a teacher, so we had that in common. We both love kids. Paul's a joker. He's really funny, and he does practical jokes on people and he... Yeah, I just remember laughing, laughing all the time when we first got together, yeah. A year and a half after we met, we moved to London. We wanted to see the world and stuff. Yeah, we loved it. We travelled every holiday and went long weekends and brought a camper van and drove around Europe. And so we were like, 'Well, where will we get married if we go back to NZ? 'That's taking a lot of time off our jobs.' So we said, 'Let's just go to Vegas. Let's elope.' We hired a Mustang. Um, but that was probably the highlight for me, apart from getting married to you, obviously. Who wants a swing? Tina and Paul eventually returned to NZ to have a family. But although they now have two children, they spent many years struggling with infertility before getting the help they needed. I said to Paul, 'Let's just go and see the experts.' And we were both, sort of, really worried ` what if they say we need IVF or we need $12,000 or...? But, um, I was, like, 'Well, no, let's just go and find out. Let's just actually find out what we're dealing with.' Fertility Associates discovered the poor quality of Paul's sperm meant IVF was their only option. It used to be thought that infertility and not getting pregnant was due to the woman's problems, but now probably 40% of problems are due to the male. Paul's sperm quality is such that it's highly unlikely they'll achieve a pregnancy without IVF, and in that situation, you can have two cycles of IVF free. The first cycle was a success, producing four embryos. One was put back into me, and three were frozen. And I got up at about 5 o'clock in the morning or something and went and did a pregnancy test, and it's the first time I'd ever seen lines, two lines. It was so exciting. Yeah, it just` honestly, it just felt like a dream the first time` And then you don't believe it. ...with a 30% chance, you know. I think that was about three days before the blood test. So I think I then just tested another hundred times before the blood test, yeah. We had a caesarean, and I remember you going over, bawling my eyes out, cos I saw Paul just... He went over with the baby and just looking at the baby with that love in his eyes, and I was just, like, that's what it's all about. That's... You know, that's the moment that we've waited for, yeah. I think as soon as she was born, I think, eh, we decided that we would definitely have a second. It was almost dead certain it wasn't gonna happen a second time, to make up for the success on the first time. And again, I did a pregnancy test early. Yeah, I couldn't believe it, again. I've had, you know, two children from that process. Those two that are still in the freezer are, you know, their brothers and sisters. And I wonder will it` will they have curly hair like Evie or straight hair like Lucas, or... Yeah. Hi, Freddie. Hi, guys. Lovely to see you, Tina. Mwah. And Paul, hi. Good to see you. And, uh, how have you been? Yeah, busy, busy. Very busy. I can imagine. Two under 5, is that right? Yeah, yeah. So, why are you here? (LAUGHS) I know. I do wonder that sometimes. A bit of free time (!) She's about to go to school, and we thought, we had this crazy idea (!) No, we want to, um, thaw one of the other embryos and hope to have a third child. We'll only put one embryo back. So we thaw one ` if it survives, we can put it back. OK, so I'll, uh, get things organised. Excellent. So they're exceedingly lucky, you know. (CHUCKLES) You know, it's unusual for a couple to have two babies separated from one IVF cycle, and they've got the possibility of having four. The last time I did this, I looked at the embryos, uh, as percentage chances of success, and I think this time round, they are... they're potential people. Which makes it hard to deal with the fact that it... it possibly might not work. GENTLE KEYBOARD MUSIC Today we're gonna have a scan to see how many follicles that, hopefully, have been produced through all of that stimulation of the hormones. MUSIC CONTINUES Three weeks tomorrow since Mum passed, so last night was a bit of a rough night for me. Mm. You miss your mum, eh? Mm. Mm. Yeah. Hi, Rochelle and Raymond. I'm Mark Stegmann. How do you do? Good, thank you. I'll be doing your scan today, if you'd like to come through. Sure. OK, guys, there's your uterus, and the first thing we're gonna measure is the lining, which is good. All right, so on the right ovary,... we've got a... > 17. > And we have a 15... and an 11. > All right. I don't see any follicles on the left, Rochelle. Not as many as we would have hoped for, but I do think it's worth going ahead another day of stimulation, > and then trigger tomorrow. Egg pick-up, then on Tuesday. > People who have been in this situation before, is it likely that both or one will...? Yes, it's likely that they will both be mature eggs ` they both look like nice mature follicles. Uh, whether they will both fertilise or not is hard to say. OK. But, uh, we... we would expect to get an egg from each. OK. Thank you. Thank you. OK. Good. An ideal number for us is between six and 10, so two is few, um, but they do look like nice follicles. We don't try and give patients false hope. We give them hope if we can, but` but if` if things are definitely not going to work out, or we feel they're definitely not, we would tell them. We expect to be, like, at least four or five, but two ` you never know what's gonna happen with those two. You know, it may be that's the start of a new life. You know, you just don't know. You know, even one. You know, we're just hoping. You know, just... at least we have faith and just hope that those two will be enough to carry through, you know. Yeah. So... I feel a lot of positivity from Raymond, actually. I can feel his positivity. Um,... I'm not quite there yet. 'Yeah, we'll see on Tuesday what's gonna happen and, uh, yeah, just hope for the best, eh?' GENTLE MUSIC All right. Rochelle, we're gonna get underway shortly. > Now, there will be a bit of firm pressure and a little bit of a nip, OK? Here we go. > Breathe it in, and just try and keep it there. (GASPS) Ow. Good girl, and blow it away. That's the worst of it, OK? We're underway. Bingo. Just like that. First egg. Good on you. OK. Ow. Ow! Breathe it in... < and blow it out. MACHINE WHIRRS There's number two. Yay. And that's it. We're finished. > Final count is two. That's great. That's good. Well done. BEEP! So, all going to plan, we'll be catching up Thursday or Friday for your transfer, OK? Raymond's sperm has not got particularly good progression, but this is good. I can strip the eggs off, and then just pick out two sperm easily. Cos we've only got a couple of eggs here, we want to make sure as far as possible that we get some nice-looking sperm. This is not. You can see here lots of little dimples, little vacuoles. That indicates maybe DNA damage in the sperm. There's no vacuoles in that one there. OK, so, the polar body, the little round thing at the bottom, tells us that this egg is mature. So, you can see the sperm... just here. Yeah? Here's egg number two. GENTLE MUSIC Hopefully, we'll have good news for this couple tomorrow. MUSIC CONTINUES We got a call the next morning saying one egg had fertilised abnormally, so that was out of the running; and the other egg hadn't developed as far along as they would have liked to have seen, so they wanted to hold on for a couple more hours. So then we got a call about 3.30, letting us know that that egg had not developed further, so... She asked me, 'Why are you not crying?' You know, and I said, 'It's hard to explain. Inside of me, there's a lot of... a lot of pain in there, but yeah, just... Yeah. Yeah, I try to be strong for her, you know, and, um... Yeah. I said, 'You can do the crying; I'll...' I try to be strong, you know? Yeah. She's the one who actually did most of the... the work, you know? (SNIFFLES) And I'm so proud of her, you know? Yeah. POIGNANT MUSIC 1 TINKLY MUSIC It is the morning of the transfer, and I feel sick with nerves. I'm so... scared that our embryos won't survive the freezing. Just keep yourself completely occupied and try not to think about it. I can't not think about it. I know. So, now we're going to thaw the embryo, or warm the embryo. So, in order for this to occur, we need a fast, quick thaw. Oh, my God, that was the clinic, and I just couldn't hardly even breathe. And he said that they've just thawed the embryo and it's great, it's OK! How are you feeling? We've passed the first hurdle, for me. We always think of it as a, um, serious of hurdles. Hurdle number one is definitely done. Five-year old embryo too ` that's amazing. TINKLY MUSIC Come and have a wee look at the embryo over here, guys. Awesome. All right? Yup. Well, if you wanna have a seat round the other side, and we'll, uh, get things set up here. So, we're just gonna load the embryo into the catheter. > OK, we have one embryo for Tina Taylor. < Cheers. So, I have the catheter now, guys, and I'm just going to guide that through. Just advancing the second part of it, and that couldn't have been easier, guys. Catheter slowly back. That's fantastic. And I'll just get Tex to check that. That is all clear. > All clear. Awesome. Fantastic. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you. Certainly, on paper, it is as good as the ones she's had before, so we have the same expectations. So, you know, we're hopeful, um, but, um... and she's done really well to date, uh, but, you know, the reality is not every embryo's gonna be a baby. TINKLY PIANO MUSIC How are you feeling? Nervous. It's gonna be fine. OK? DOOR SQUEAKS Hiya. Tina Taylor. I'm here for a blood test. I've been feeling morning sickness since Tuesday, so, um, yeah, I'm feeling hopeful that either I'm pregnant or I have giardia, um, cos, yeah, I've been sick all week. Tina Taylor? I didn't, um, do a pregnancy test this time, and this is the only time I've really been waking up in the night, anxious about it, I guess, so I'm looking forward to knowing either way. Now I guess we, um, just go and wait for the dreaded phone call. Um, yeah, it's the worse bit, I think. She bet me a hundred dollars on the way home that it's gonna be positive. I'm not a hundred percent certain. Um, when we get the call, I'll believe it. She's says that she's gonna be fine if it's not a pregnancy, but I don't... I don't know. I think, um, we could have a major problem if it's not today. She's built herself up into 100% this is gonna work. And that's probably why I'm holding back a little bit ` cos I know that if it doesn't, she's gonna need a lot of help. CELL PHONE RINGS No ID. That's it ` that's them. Hi, Paul Taylor speaking. Hi, Paul. It's Juanita here from the clinic. Hi there. Hey, is it all right if I stick you on, um, loudspeaker? My wife's here as well. Yup, sure. No problem. Hi, Juanita. Hi, Tina. How you doing? Good. Nervous. Nervous? Are you ready? Are you guys OK? BOTH: Yup. OK. I am so sorry. This is a negative result today. There is no pregnancy hormone in the sample. OK. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye. You all right? Yeah, I just wasn't expecting that. I was so convinced. POIGNANT PIANO MUSIC (SNIFFLES) MUSIC CONTINUES (SOBS) MUSIC CONTINUES We'll try again. Yeah, OK. MUSIC CONTINUES GENTLE MUSIC Well, guys, this was a meeting I was hoping we wouldn't need to have to have. Mm. Yeah. How are you both holding up? Um... Once the hormones start subsiding, it gets easier. I think that helps, but, you know, there's a lot of hope attached to going through IVF, and you can go into it knowing what all of the ups and downs might be, but when you're actually going through it, it's quite... quite another matter. The day after the eggs and sperm are put together, our team in the lab look down the microscope, and they're looking to see if normal fertilisation has happened. Now, in one of the eggs, there was no evidence that fertilisation had happened at all. And in the other egg,... there was abnormal fertilisation. < Now, the reason why that has happened probably comes back to an egg-quality issue. The first option is let's jump back on the horse and try again. There are some subtle tweaks one can try, but the core backbone of what we're doing really wouldn't ` we'd still be applying stimulation with the fertility drugs to the ovaries. And there's a distinct possibility we could get a very similar outcome, so we have to be really realistic about that. Um, I'm not opposed to you trying again, but if I had to put some sort of number on the chance of a baby ` which at the end of the day is what we're here all about ` it's going to be less than 10%. OK. Which I know is hard to hear. (SNIFFLES) Thank you. So yes, there's still a chance, but it's a slim one. Right now the thing that's potentially the rate-limiting step here is the eggs, so if we used someone else's eggs ` an egg donor ` um, that would significantly increase your chances. < The third option ` there is such a thing as donor embryo. < And, of course, the fourth option, that always has to be on the table, is to say, 'Well, look, you know, we've tried our best, it hasn't worked out, 'and we just don't know if we want to do any more treatment' and looking at other ways to start a family, either through adoption or... or looking at a life without children. POIGNANT MUSIC Our hope was, like... was really really high and our expectation, but, yeah, um,... it was just crashed in one second, just like that, you know? It's like you've been falling overboard or jumping off a bridge or something, you know? Yeah. It was devastating. POIGNANT MUSIC CONTINUES Yeah, it's just... it's really challenging to try and figure out what we want to do, but... Yeah. And if any options were to be successful, I mean, that ` that's the thing, it's knowing. Um, having to put so much into something to not be successful is really challenging. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC FLAX RUSTLES Your homework book is on the table. So we're 39 weeks and four days today. A couple of days' time, there'll be a new arrival ` um, Baby Hill will join... join our troop. We'll go from three to four. I still have moments, it's when I'm driving too, that I will, like, actually cry, like, from the,... you know, just how lucky we are. Because I reflect back on the treatment that we went through and, you know, sort of, how invasive and unknown it is, like every step, you just have no control at all, no indication of, you know, is this gonna work? RAIN PATTERS TINKLY MUSIC This is Archer. He made a little family of three become a family of four on Sunday just gone. Um, so Teresa went into labour early, or I suppose really late Saturday night, um, and then kicked off properly early Sunday morning. And it was... it was that quick that it was all, kind of, battle stations and 'Thunderbirds are go' getting ready. Um, and we had a home birth. Called my midwife, and what time did she get there? Maybe about 4, yeah. And Archer was born less than two hours after that. And then when he was out, that was the first thing ` we just called out to Kingston to come through, and it was Kingston that discovered that we had a... a baby brother for him as opposed to a baby sister. Yeah. You know, in terms of birth, it was pretty easy, I'd say. Yeah. You know, all the medical stuff we had to go through to get him, and then at the other end have it so, like, calm. You wind it back to the point where we had, you know, the sperm tests and being told that, you know, there was a zero... a zero sperm count, and then, sort of, each little step along the way to actually, you know, ending up with sitting here and having a little bundle of joy, which always seemed so far off. It's gonna be interesting to see who he resembles the most. Currently, it's... You. He's screaming me. And at times, when the sun catches, it's got a bit of a tweak of ginger in there, so we shall see how that... how that pans out. (CHUCKLES) He's definitely fair, yup. We've one chocolate and one vanilla. GENTLE KEYBOARD MUSIC