MM Assisted conception


‘She just completed us. She was everything that we had needed and wanted. She made everything OK and we were so blessed to have her’


were so blessed to have her. At that moment we thought if we didn’t have another we had enough.’ As time passed, however, the couple –


who had one embryo left in Brno – knew that they wanted their daughter to ‘have’ someone, and so, in October 2017, they returned to Brno to do a frozen embryo transfer. A few difficulties with her fluid levels caused Maria enough anxiety to make her a little apprehensive, so she was over the moon when, again, two weeks later Sean came out of the bathroom to say ‘it’s worked’! On 1 August last year, two-year-old Penny became big sister to her 9lb 8oz brother, Alex. ‘After six treatments we now have our


> In a bid to relieve some of their heavy hearts, Sean and Maria booked to go to New York for Christmas 2014. ‘I felt really bad,’ says Maria. ‘I felt as if I


couldn’t breathe the whole time and my chest felt heavy. I hated myself because I was so jealous and envious of others who were pregnant. I didn’t like who I was.’ While driving from Cleveland to New


York, however, the couple were involved in a car accident in which they were nearly killed. Feeling fortunate to have been given a second chance, Maria had a ‘lightbulb moment’, where she realised that she needed to get her body and mind into a good place. ‘I left my job to focus on doing IVF


again,’ says Maria. ‘I also started acupuncture and went walking; basically just spending a lot of ‘me time’. Sean and I also realised that we had to stop feeling the need to put a smile on all the time. We weren’t going to pretend any more that we were alright.’ It was around this time, however, that


Maria found herself talking to a friend whose cousin had gone through IVF treatment in Brno in the Czech Republic. Like Maria, this girl had also gone through three failed IVFs at home, but had had a positive experience in Brno. ‘I immediately felt that there was positive


energy here,’ Maria smiles. ‘We went to Brno for a long weekend and looked into it.


6 Modernmum


For a start, it cost half the price of the treatment in Ireland – even with the flights and hotel etc – but it was the positive feelings that we experienced at the clinic that were worth any money! As soon as we walked through door, I just knew it was going to happen, and even more so when Dr Stefan said to us, ‘we are going to make this happen for you’. I can promise this to you’. As soon as they returned home, Sean


and Maria once again began treatment and then returned to Brno in June 2015. After ten days, they went home to once again experience the two-week wait. ‘When I did the test this time, I left it in


the bathroom and asked Sean to go and look at it because I thought maybe I brought bad luck,’ says Maria. ‘I couldn’t believe it when he said it was positive. I thought my heart would burst out of my chest.’ Needless to say, family and very close


friends, who knew what the couple were going through, were ecstatic. While the heartache and soul-crushing moments weren’t forgotten, they became like a distant memory – and even more so on 3 March 2016, when Penny O’Connor came into the world at a healthy, bouncing 7lbs 13ozs. ‘She just completed us,’ says Sean. ‘She


was everything that we had needed and wanted. She made everything OK and we


little family,’ says Maria. ‘We would like more kids but, if not, they have each other. We have one frozen embryo left, so we’re going over again this year, and, if that doesn’t work, we’ll do another fresh cycle. We’re content no matter what happens.’ ‘We’re very open about the whole thing


now,’ says Sean. ‘We know that there are so many people going through fertility ‘journeys’ and they can be soul crushing, but we want people to know that there is hope out there.’ ‘I feel I could do anything now,’ says


Maria. ‘I feel like Superwoman - but I could only do it with Sean!’


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