After four ‘heartbreaking’ rounds of IVF at a private clinic, Cassie put her hopes in the hands of Victoria’s public fertility service

Cassie Van Swol with her baby Xena. Cassie and her husband underwent four ‘financially draining’ rounds of IVF with a private clinic before turning to Victoria’s public fertility service. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

Cassie Van Swol and her husband, Steven, spent $40,000 and took out a second mortgage chasing the promise of parenthood.

“The whole time they kept telling me, ‘We’ll just get you pregnant,’” she says of their private IVF provider.