A mum-of-two has revealed how she spent more than £30,000 on nine rounds of IVF to have her miracle baby.
Catriona Sutton and husband John, both 33, used their life savings to welcome miracle second baby, Cora, in April. Teacher Catriona endured four failed IUIs (intrauterine insemination) – a treatment that involves sperm being directly inserted into a woman’s womb – as well as nine rounds of IVF. She also had three miscarriages.
She said: “We used savings to have our miracle baby but we’re completely besotted with Cora. I hope our journey can show others there is always hope.”
In 2015, three years after they got married, Catriona and John started trying for a baby. After a year of no luck, they were referred to a fertility clinic, where tests were carried out.
Catriona said: “When the results came back as normal we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility.”
In June 2017, while the couple were living in the US, Catriona had an IUI procedure, costing more than $1000 (£900). Luckily, it was a success and in March 2018, Catriona gave birth to daughter Callie, who is now four.
She said: “Given the struggles we had faced, we wanted to start trying for a second baby quite quickly.”
In April 2019, the couple underwent four IUI procedures and when each failed, they started to lose hope of having another child. A doctor recommended IVF and in September 2019, they paid $11,000 (almost £10,000) to a private clinic and managed to get 12 healthy embryos from their egg retrieval. However, the first round failed and the second ended in a miscarriage.
The couple then spent $3000 (£2700) to test their embryos for abnormalities and results showed eight out of 12 were genetically normal, giving them a 75 per cent chance of conceiving through IVF. In January 2020, after their third round of IVF, Catriona fell pregnant but at 10 weeks, she miscarried again.
She said: “It was taking a huge emotional toll and I felt like Callie was being robbed of a sibling. When I watched her playing by herself, it broke my heart.”
But they refused to give up and underwent three more rounds of IVF. However, the first two failed and the third ended in another miscarriage. In late 2020, they moved back to Scotland and continued their fertility journey. Catriona said: “We weren’t eligible for IVF on the NHS as we had a child so paid £9000 to a private clinic.”
She had another two failed rounds of IVF and was put on steroids and intralipids – fatty acids which can help women who have suffered multiple miscarriages.
She said: “In August 2021, we had our ninth round of IVF. I had no hope it would work but it did.”
Reflecting on it all, she added: “Seeing Callie play with Cora makes us so happy. Now my family is complete.”
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