Joy through IVF
Locals Wayne and Tracy Peters welcomed their precious bundle Jackson Lee Peters after conceiving through IVF
According to the Queensland Fertility Group, in-vitro fertilisation, or IVF, is a process used to overcome a range of fertility issues and for a large number of couples, gives them the best chance of having a baby.
Local couple Wayne and Tracy Peters tried to naturally concieve a child for three years, and since then have turned to IVF, finding immense joy in the process.
“When we met with Dr [John] Esler (gynaecologist and fertility specialist), he said with our chances of natural conception being so low, he would recommend IVF,” Tracy says.
“He said any other procedures or treatments lower than IVF — well, we didn’t have time on our side to do that — so he recommended with our age to go straight to IVF, so that’s what we took on board and decided to do.”
40-year-old Tracy found the process of IVF fantastic, with a well-supported network.
Both herself and her husband Wayne made sure that they kept an open and clear mindset.
“We’ve found it okay — we didn’t go into it stressed, we just went in thinking we’ll give it a go, and went with the flow,” Tracy says.
“I suppose it was a bit daunting at the start when you first meet with the nurses and they give you the whole overview process, which is about a two month process, so you’re getting a lot of information up-front.
“But then when you start it they break it down bit by bit and give you the information relevant to the stage you’re about to go through, so that makes it all nice and easy and you’re not trying to deal with two months worth of stuff up-front.”
In terms of the emotional side of things, Wayne and Tracy have taken a methodical viewpoint, instead finding joy and calm in being able to maintain some normalcy in their day-to-day life.
Wayne is the proprietor of Joyce Mayne Toowoomba, and Tracy works as the small appliance manager, generally doing six days a week.
“We just didn’t let it stress us out, we just went through it bit by bit, through each stage,” Tracy says.
“Obviously you can see that it would be emotional, as [some] people have to repeat that cycle time and time again, whereas we were very lucky to have it happen first go, but the whole process really wasn’t that bad.
“I didn’t have any side effects from the medication, so we just went about our normal working day, normal life, and didn’t really change anything.”
While Tracy was lucky enough to fall pregnant on her first round of IVF, her advice to other couples is to follow up on investigations straight away.
“Don’t leave it too late — if the doctors are saying to you with whatever age bracket you’re in that if it hasn’t happened after the 12-month period or if it hasn’t happened after your six month period, don’t delay going and getting your investigations done, because at the end of the day depending on where you are
I think initially there are nerves and a bit of apprehension about what you’re about to do, but there’s a lot of support along the way. – Tracy Peters
age-wise, you really don’t have time on your side,” Tracy says.
“I suppose that’s where I got caught out — being the modern day working person and your age kind of gets away on you, you think you have lots of time up your sleeve when you don’t.”
At the beginning of the IVF process, Wayne and Tracy made sure they took a bit of a break to regroup.
“We took a bit of a holiday for ourselves before we started, because we knew that potentially there was going to be some stress coming through during that time, but apart from that we just tried to keep our normal routine.”
Overall, Tracy recommends IVF to any other couples struggling with conception, and says there’s a huge amount of support available throughout the various stages.
“When you’re going through the fertility treatment you’ve got a team of fertility nurses there on hand that were fantastic with any questions that we had and they were very supportive throughout the whole process, so I think they made it very comfortable for us to go through that process as well,” Tracy explains.
“I think initially there are nerves and a bit of apprehension about what you’re about to do, but there’s also a lot of support along the way.”
On April 20 at 6.48am in St Vincent’s Hospital, Wayne and Tracy welcomed their son Jackson Lee Peters into the world.
Our gorgeous images of Tracy for this story were taken by Theresa Hall of Theresa Hall Photography. Tracy is dressed by Little Miracles Maternity Wear, located 131 Mary St.
Makeup was done by Stella Beauty at 25 Ipswich St and hair by Fred & Holly’s at 158 Margaret St.