After 10 years of IVF failures, they welcomed a miracle baby

After trying to have a baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) for 10 years, an Australian couple gave up, only to have a miracle baby when they least expected it.

Key Takeaways:

• Liz Walton and her husband Greg got married in their 30s and struggled with infertility.

• A fertility specialist told them they could never conceive naturally and that IVF was their only option. Six rounds of IVF attempts over 10 years all failed, and Liz gave up on having a baby.

• In her late 40s, she got sick and thought she had begun going through menopause. Instead, she and Greg had conceived a miracle baby on their own.

The Details:

In interviews with Mamamia and Business Insider, Canberra mom Liz Walton shared the incredible story. She said not getting married until she was 35 made her realize she needed to try immediately for a baby, as she was already reaching advanced maternal age.

"It took me a while to find a man of substance," she said, explaining that was why she and her husband Greg tried to start their family right away. "We tried and tried and tried and tried and tried… and it didn't happen for us quickly at all."

After 18 months of trying, they saw a fertility specialist, who told them Greg had anti-sperm antibodies (ASAs), in which the body's immune system attacks sperm cells. They were told their only option to ever have a baby was IVF, and that natural pregnancy would be impossible.

"There were a lot of tears. I felt bad for my husband… he felt horrendous. He kind of closed down and didn't really know how to speak about it," she said. "It was like, we've got no choice. If we want children, this is what we will have to do."

So they followed their doctor's recommendation and began trying IVF. But Walton found it to be invasive and difficult, with the hormones she was being given for IVF affecting her emotions and her physical health. But they kept trying, though each time, they still failed to become pregnant.

"That two-week wait is a big, inner journey of doing your best to remain calm. Stress can create a lot of inflammation, and these are all things going on in your mind. Will this impact what I'm doing? No, I can't think of anything bad. But I don't know if I want to think really good, because what if it's really bad?" she said, adding that she began to feel guilty.

"There's all of this emotion of, I wish I could give my husband a baby. I wish I could give my in-laws a baby. I wish my own parents could become grandparents."

After over seven years of trying, Walton finally allowed herself to give up on having a child, and enjoy life without motherhood. Then, she experienced a miracle:

"I realized I needed to figure out how to give up, how to let go of my dream of parenthood. I did lots of inner work on myself to heal. I stopped drinking and smoking and began reconnecting with my husband. I'd unfairly projected some anger onto him; he had anti-sperm antibodies, which were preventing me from getting pregnant.

When I turned 46, I actually thought I was going through menopause as I was feeling so dreadful, so I went to the doctor. I discovered — to my utter shock — I was pregnant. I think all the inner work I did on letting go and de-stressing helped me fall pregnant naturally. I also think it has made me a better mom."

Zoom In:

At a 12-week ultrasound, Walton finally let herself accept that she was going to be a mother. "I saw this little thing, that little outline, and the emotion poured over me," she said. "It was like I wasn't crying, but tears were coming down my face."

Doctors initially thought her daughter might have Down syndrome, though she refused to let it hamper her joy.

"I had to learn present moment awareness because there was a little thing in my body that had arrived here; even though the doctors told me things might not be right, I still had to move forward," she said. "In the end, there was nothing they could find that was wrong, and I had a wonderfully healthy baby at the age of 46."

Today, her daughter Willow is nine years old, and Walton is launching a fertility expo to help other hopeful parents in her position.

"Until you're in that space of pain and anguish, you just don't realise what you're going to need to know," she said. "The Melbourne Fertility Expo is a space to offer this support and help, and give us the tools to walk our path in the healthiest and most fertile way possible."

The Big Picture:

Though many people who call themselves pro-life champion IVF, arguing that it is "pro-life" because it creates life, the reality is quite the opposite. There are more lives lost to IVF than there are to abortion.

According to a recent study published in Fertility and Sterility, as many as 13 million children have been born through IVF around the world since 1978. Yet multiple embryos are typically created in each IVF cycle, which are then screened and graded, with only the most desirable embryos implanted. The rest are either frozen indefinitely, destroyed, or fail to implant in another IVF cycle.

According to research published in Reproductive Biomedicine Online, over 2.5 million IVF cycles are performed every year, with only 500,000 babies born annually.

On top of that, it is estimated that over one million embryos are frozen in storage in the United States alone. All the while, the number of children conceived through IVF is growing each year, with 2.6% of all births in the United States coming from IVF in 2023.

Restorative reproductive medicine (RRM), which offers an alternative to IVF, is also under increasing attack from the highly profitable fertility industry. RRM helped Brittany Ingram to conceive her children after a decade of infertility.

The Bottom Line:

It is undoubtedly heartbreaking to struggle through infertility, but couples like the Waltons deserve options beyond being told that IVF is their only choice.