"IVF Journey"

I wanted to write to express my absolute gratitude to NHS Lothian Fertility Centre. After 2.5 years of trying to conceive, we started our IVF journey, no one can really understand how lonely infertility can be, month after month of feeling like you fail as a woman.

As soon as we walked through the doors we were immediately brought into not an outpatient facility, but a family. Every single member of staff who works within Edinburgh Fertility Centre (EFC) is outstanding, the second we arrived, all the weight we were carrying was instantly removed, we were supported, cared for, treated with absolute care and compassion and made to feel like part of their family.

NHS Lothian has values that all staff work under, the team there, including the domestics, receptionists, HCAs, consultants, nurses, embryologists, every single person we encountered on our pathway went above and beyond the values. Their ability to lift couples out of absolute despair, shouldering the weight infertility has put upon them is beyond providing care, its giving life back to them.

I remember talking to one of the nurses on my first egg collection, discussing ovulation tests and she told me not to worry about them now and that they would take care of everything. Such a simple statement that instantly removed 2.5 years of frustration, panic, sadness from me.

While admitted for treatments, every member of my care team was exceptional. There aren't the words for me to properly express how incredible they were, they consoled me in the bad times, they genuinely shared my pain and they celebrated with me during the good. When I showed them my positive pregnancy test, they celebrated with me like I was telling a sister.

How can you appropriately thank a team that gave you the ability to be a mum and a dad? They changed our lives, they saved our lives.  They perform miracles every day and the emotional weight they carry on their patients behalf shows how incredible they truly are. They go so far beyond NHS Lothian values, their team working and support of each other and their patients makes one family.

I will remember all their faces and the kindness they showed me for the rest of my life.