SHELBY Stewart and her hubby were thrilled to find out they were expecting.
The couple had been desperate for a sibling for their daughter Bennett, but they knew the path to parenthood again wasn’t going to be easy.
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Shelby had suffered cancer as a teenager and was told that she would never be able to have her own baby.
Thanks to fertility treatment they were able to have Bennett, and then they turned to treatment again when they wanted to have another baby.
This time, after a long journey through IVF, they were thrilled to discover Shelby was pregnant.
But when they went to confirm her pregnancy, doctors made the most remarkable discovery – there was another baby in there, besides the two embryos they had transferred.
Tests showed it wasn’t an egg that had split – and they were given the amazing news that Shelby had actually been pregnant at the time the twins were conceived.
“It was just incredible to hear,” says Shelby, who lives with husband Chase in Utah in the United States.
“To have been pregnant already and not know it, and then having two embryos put into my womb with IVF treatment which both were successful too, was amazing.
“When we found out I was actually pregnant with triplets, we couldn’t believe what we were hearing.
“Now the triplets have such an amazing bond together.
“And Bennett is a fantastic big sister to them all; she was expecting one sibling, she never imagined she was going to end up with three!”
After Shelby’s battle with non Hodgkin Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, when she was 15, the doctors told her that it was likely she would go into an early menopause in her 20s.
When she met Chase, 36, a few years later, she told him what the experts had said, and they decided to try artificial insemination.
On the second go they managed to conceive Bennett, who was born safely.
Doctors then advised they try for another baby quickly as the window of opportunity may quickly close.
“We started it straight away, but we tried five times and it wasn’t successful on any of those times,” recalls Shelby.
“It was so hard emotionally, and so upsetting each time it didn’t work, but we knew that we had to keep trying.”
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Their fertility doctor suggested trying a different medication and, after doing another egg retrieval, they discovered that two of their embryos were tied together – a boy and a girl.
They decided to put both of those in, and hoped it would work.
“It was such a low chance of us getting just one baby,” admits Shelby.
“We didn’t hold out much hope when I did a pregnancy test and it was positive, but then our blood tests showed something strange.
“I was worried I was miscarrying and they performed a scan, and there was now another surprise.
“Instead of just one baby, or even two, there were three little sacs. We couldn’t understand it.”
I want our story to show that even on a long journey through infertility, miracles do happen
Shelby Stewart
Initially doctors thought one of the embryos had split, but then when the triplets were born – daughters Etta and Margot, and son Garner at 35 weeks – the doctors did some tests and found that they were from three totally separate embryos.
“The only explanation was that I’d already been pregnant naturally and I didn’t know it at the time,” says Shelby.
“So when the two embryos were put back into my womb and implanted, it meant I was pregnant with three babies!
“The doctors at the clinic said they have never seen it happen before.”
Shelby was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy – where the heart is enlarged after the strain of pregnancy – five days after the birth so her recovery was slow.
But thankfully now, she is stable.
Everything you need to know about IVF
IN vitro fertilisation (IVF) can help people with fertility problems have a baby.
It has six main stages:
- Suppressing your natural cycle – your menstrual cycle is suppressed with medicine
- Helping your ovaries produce extra eggs – medicine is used to encourage your ovaries to produce more than one egg at a time
- Monitoring your progress and maturing your eggs – an ultrasound scan is carried out to check the development of the eggs, and medicine is used to help them mature
- Collecting the eggs – a needle is inserted through your vagina and into your ovaries to remove the eggs
- Fertilising the eggs – the eggs are mixed with the sperm for a few days to allow them to be fertilised
- Transferring the embryo(s) – one or two fertilised eggs (embryos) are placed into your womb
IVF can be carried out using a couple’s eggs and sperm, or those from donors.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) fertility guidelines state that IVF should be offered to women under the age of 43 who have been trying to get pregnant through regular unprotected sex for two years, or those who have had 12 cycles of artificial insemination, with at least six of these using a method called intrauterine insemination.
However, the final decision about who can have NHS-funded IVF in England is made by local integrated care boards.
If you’re not eligible, you can pay for private treatment, which can cost up to £5,000 or more.
Success rates vary and will depend on the woman’s age and the cause of infertility, if known.
In 2019, the percentage of IVF treatments that resulted in a live birth was:
- 32% for women under 35
- 25% for women aged 35 to 37
- 19% for women aged 38 to 39
- 11% for women aged 40 to 42
- 5% for women aged 43 to 44
- 4% for women aged over 44
There are also risks involved. As well as being emotionally demanding, the potential health complications include hot flushes and headaches from medicines used during treatment, multiple births that can be dangerous for the mother and children, ectopic pregnancies (where the embryo implants in the fallopian tubes rather than the womb), and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, where the ovaries overreact to the medicines.
Source: NHS
The triplets have just turned three, and they keep the couple on their toes.
“They are such a little gang together,” says Shelby.
“Bennett is such a good big sister and really helps us look after the three of them.
“I want our story to show that even on a long journey through infertility, miracles do happen.”
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