A new Royal baby
Meet little Calvin – born after holistic fertility treatment on Charles’s ‘NHS’
A COUPLE who feared they would never be able to have children have thanked Prince Charles for the arrival of their baby son.
Colin, 30, and Stacey Forrest, 28, were overjoyed to welcome little Calvin after trying for more than two years to have a child.
The proud parents, from Darvel, Ayrshire, sought help from His Royal Highness’s new Health and Wellbeing Centre at Dumfries House, in nearby Cumnock.
Couples struggling with infertility, often forced to pay thousands for private treatments, are offered a free, 12-week ‘holistic’ fertility course along with reproductive acupuncture and reflexology, yoga, Thai massage and dance classes.
Last night, Mrs Forrest said: ‘We can’t believe we finally have the baby we longed for and how much he’s brought to our lives.
‘We’ll always be grateful to Prince Charles and the team at Dumfries House for making our little family complete. There were times we were in absolute despair as our friends, who all married around the same time as us, became parents one by one. We thought we would never have a child. In the end, it all happened naturally.’
We reported in July 2017 how the Duke of Rothesay was creating his very own ‘Royal Health Service’ at Dumfries House – with four treatment rooms, two activity areas and a meditation space with underfloor heating.
For Mr and Mrs Forrest, who married in January 2017, it was more in hope than expectation that they signed up for the centre’s first fertility programme.
She said: ‘Colin was a bit sceptical. I wanted to try anything by that stage. All tests carried out by the
NHS showed that there was apparently nothing wrong with either of us, so everyone kept telling us, “Just be patient, it will happen when it happens”.
‘Both my sisters-in-law then became pregnant and had baby boys ten weeks apart. It just underlined for us what we were missing and I found myself getting more stressed and upset each month as our hopes were dashed.’
The couple registered for fertility treatment through the NHS and were on the 18-month waiting list for IUI (intrauterine insemination) when they decided to spend three months of their wait ‘trying something different’.
Mrs Forrest, a childminder, said: ‘The course helped me as a person and taught me to be less stressed and just generally calm down.
‘Sharing the experience with other couples going through the same thing really helped, too, especially with Colin, who felt a bit awkward at first about discussing how he felt. When we found out last year we were having a baby, we were completely over the moon.’
Calvin arrived at Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, on February 19, after a textbook pregnancy.
Mrs Forrest said: ‘When I held him for the first time, I felt this unbelievable happiness that I was finally a mum. It’s been amazing and a whirlwind of emotions for both of us, but we love being parents. As for Prince Charles, we’ve never met him, but I can’t ever express our gratitude for how he’s changed our lives.’
The facility also runs ten-week health and wellbeing courses to help members of the public – many of them referred by the NHS – who are suffering with a number of life-limiting issues, including weight gain and type 2 diabetes.
Yesterday, Shiona Johnston, a registered nurse who jointly heads the Integrated Health and Wellbeing programme at Dumfries House, said: ‘We are delighted for Colin and Stacey.
‘For many couples, pregnancy can become such a medical journey and it takes away a lot of what should be a natural, fun process.
‘We don’t necessarily measure our success in terms of successful pregnancy, but our programme is a great base for whatever happens next.’
‘We thought we would never have a child’