Aylesbury mum shares IVF journey for National Infertility Awareness Week

An Aylesbury mother is sharing her story of using IVF treatment to give birth for National Infertility Awareness Week.

Joma Lawton, 34, a solicitor from Aylesbury, experienced a miscarriage and was unable to conceive naturally.

She would have to wait two years for IVF treatment via the NHS and felt like she was getting nowhere.

So instead used an IVF refund programme, which meant if anything went wrong during the process they would have the money.

Joma had success first time with the IVF treatment, and is now a proud parent to her baby, Eden.

Access Fertility, was the company Joma used, which offers multiple IVF cycles for a fixed price, significant savings and up to a 100 per cent refund if the couple do not have a baby.

She said: “People are surprised that an IVF refund is even an option, but it made absolute sense to me, removing that element of constantly worrying about the money side.”

National Infertility Awareness Week started on Monday (23 April), and runs until Saturday (29 April).

"I think once you get to the other side of it, you’re like ‘oh, I’ve done that. I’ve actually been able to do it’.” Joma added.

"Whereas before when you start it is so daunting, you’re expecting it to be painful and emotionally draining. It’s a rollercoaster, I would say.”

In preparation for the treatment Joma undertook four hypnotherapy sessions to combat a long-running phobia of needles.

"I did it initially so I could have all the blood tests,” Joma said.

"I found a really lovely person locally, who I did the hypnotherapy with and then I stayed with her for CBT therapy throughout the treatment as well. So that really helped.

“I so wanted the hypnotherapy to work as well, so I was willing to believe that this works.”

Joma is undecided as to whether she would use IVF again, and admitted that the experience could be “gruelling” at times.

Current NHS data shows that the success rate for IVF pregnancies is 32 per cent for women under 35, with that percentage declining the older a person gets. It is not normally recommended to people over 42 for this reason.