Veering off again...

I know that there is absolutely no fluid transition from entry to entry, perhaps that will come with time. At the moment I am just writing about things that happen as they happen, especially about people/blogs that have a profound affect.

You may come to realise that I am quite broody at the moment (that's an understatement if ever there was one). Ever since the RO and I set a date for the wedding, my clock has been LOUDLY ticking away in my ear. It's so loud I swear that everyone around me can hear it as well.

As I've mentioned previously I have always liked babies/children and am always awe struck by pregnancy and everything that goes with it. Of course I have always taken it for granted that it would just happen if/when I wanted it to. I have had 'scares' (ok one was a little more than a scare but that's for another post, another time) and I still think that I'll be able to fall pregnant fairly easily.

Unfortunately, not everyone is that lucky. Sure I have 'intellectually' known that infertility exists and I have heard/seen programs about people who have gone through IVF, but since I don't personally know anyone who has had to go through it (I don't think), I've never really considered the impact that this must have.

Somewhere along the line, I clicked on a link to a blog written by a woman from back home. As is my habit whenever going somewhere new that is recommended by one of the blog writers that I admire, I immediately clicked on the archives and started at the beginning. I'm pretty anal when it comes to these things as I like to know the story from the beginning.

Reading Tersia's story has had such a profound effect on me that I suddenly felt that I had to try and consider what living with infertility must be like. Tersia and other woman like her are quite incredible. I'm not sure where the strength comes from as the stress and continuous financial/emotional pressure that goes hand-in-hand with IVF seems so incredibly intense that I'm convinced I would buckle at the very first hurdle.

All around me (especially in the UK it seems) I see young woman falling prey to the early pregnancy without any real idea of the implications. For these woman having a child so early in life is probably seen (if only initially) as a burden and yet all around the world their are these wonderful people desperate to experience the joy for themselves.

It is incredibly humbling to read a story like Tersia's, it makes me feel like there must be more that we, as woman, can do to support each other. Tersia seems to have a lovely support group of her own through the magic of t'internet, but what of the thousands of others who must feel so alienated and perhaps alien?? when surrounded by others to whom it all just comes so naturally?

Don't think for one minute that I pity Tersia or any of the other brave woman who follow the same difficult path that she did. I don't pity them at all, I do however pity those who condemn the intervention of science to assist. It saddens me that in a society so open and candid in so many ways, the true story behind infertility is hidden behind glossy documentary's and brief news headlines. Nobody speaks of the darkness following a failed cycle (I hope that's the right term?), or of the horror of pregnancy, followed by miscarriage, stillbirth or infant mortality.

Instead we blissfully go through our lives (if we're of the lucky fertile bunch) believing that everything is simple, that pregnancy comes easily and sometimes we aren't as thankful as we should be.

I know it's quite a sweeping generalisation - there are other wonderful, fertile woman out there who are equally supportive as those 'on the inside', but isn't it a pity that they are the exception rather than the norm?

Tersia is one of the lucky one's in the sense that she now has 2 beautiful babies at the end of her long journey. If only everyone could be that fortunate.

VP