Lisa is overjoyed to be a mum, thanks to IVF success
“I’ll be forever grateful to the team at CUMH, the midwives they were absolutely amazing," says Lisa O'Halloran on the birth of her twins Hazel and Ayda O'Halloran.
Lisa O’Halloran (33) always wanted to be a mum and she made a promise to herself in her twenties that if she had not met the right partner by the time she turned 35, then she was going to go and do it herself and be a single mom by choice.
“I always wanted to be a mum and I decided go to on this parenthood journey alone as I hadn’t met, and wasn’t meeting, the right person,” said Lisa.
“I certainly didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it turned out to be and I would say yes you really can sink to low places (three rounds of Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and two rounds of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) before she finally conceived) but I am so lucky to have two beautiful baby girls at the end of my journey.”
Lisa underwent treatment at the Sims Fertility Clinic in Cork.
“I always had a big fear that if I let it too late motherhood would not happen for me. I said it to my sister Sharon who had three children of her own at the time and I remember she said to me if you can’t go a day without thinking about it then go and do it.”
And that is what Lisa did. Today she is mum to six-month-old twin girls, Hazel and Ayda, born last October after Lisa became pregnant through IVF and a Danish sperm donor.
Lisa says the pregnancy was tough, but she is very grateful to Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) for their excellent care and attention and to the twins who she said “cooperated and stayed in the womb until 33 weeks and 6 days” and then they decided it was time to come meet their mom.
”My heart is so full of love for them. Their smiles every morning so precious and so beautiful. It is amazing that they are actually here and that they are my two babies. My life is so busy and so lovely. I never thought I was going to be mum to twins but I must say I do feel doubly blessed.”
Lisa lives with her parents, Patrick and Eileen O’Halloran, and her brother, Mark, in Ballyhea near Charleville, Co Cork.
“My parents so enjoy them and I think after lockdown and Covid-19, it is beautiful to have these two little babies in the house giving us all a new lease of life. Hazel always wakes first at 6am and then Ayda at 7am.
“My sister Sharon lives in nearby Kanturk and she really is a huge support to me as she is mum to four children and we were actually pregnant last year at the same time.” Lisa does plan at some stage to return to work as healthcare assistant at Limerick Regional Hospital as she says this pregnancy did take all of her savings.
“I had saved for this. In all I spent around €15,000 and €12,000 of that was on clinic fees,” says Lisa.
She adds: “It was a difficult pregnancy. I suffered with restless legs, pregnancy insomnia, gestational diabetes, there were four hospital admissions and an iron infusion.
“I’ll be forever grateful to the team at CUMH, the midwives they were absolutely amazing. The girls were so well looked after in the Netonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Baby Hazel weighted 4I lbs 13 oz and baby Ayda 5I lbs 9 oz.”
Lisa explained that she had undergone egg retrieval and IVF embryo transfer in early February 2021. She discovered she was pregnant just one week later.
“I was in complete shock when it happened and of course so excited too,” she says.
Lisa started her Instagram account — — in February 2020 after her first consultation at SIMS.
“I remember looking on Instagram before I started and I couldn’t find an honest story about what really is involved. I would have loved to follow someone that went through everything so this is what I decided to do. I saw that there was an opening for a page where someone told you every single part of the journey, the fails, the wins, the defeats. I thought it would help a lot of women.”
And it does; so much so that Lisa now has over 26K followers. She documented the highs and the lows showing the medications involved, the bruising from the injections, the egg collection procedure, the sperm donor process.
The sperm donor process she said probably is the thing she gets asked about most as there is no sperm bank in Ireland.
“My clinic deal with a sperm bank in Denmark called Cyros International sperm bank. In truth it is like a dating site. You get all the basics like hair colour, eye colour, height, weight, blood type, a bit of a medical history. You get a bit of a write-up from the donor to say why he wanted to donate sperm, and you get a bit of his parents' medical history.”
Lisa explained that her donor has one child already, and he said after that he thought it was very important to help other people out.
Once her girls turn 18 she said they will be able to access the details of the donor.
“My hope with telling my story is that every woman knows that they do have options and to not be afraid to go for something that you can’t go a day without thinking about it. I think we are still a bit behind in Ireland and a lot of women when they hit 30 panic for that reason and think they need to find a partner really quickly."
It is Mother’s Day this month. Lisa said she wants to get a message out there that moms really are amazing and “we don’t give ourselves enough praise. A lot of women speak about their body in a negative way for instance after giving birth. Why don’t we speak more about it in a positive way?
“Never in a million years did I think I’d be breastfeeding twins at the same time. But I am so damn proud of myself and what my body is able to do to feed, protect and nourish my babies.
“So many people said how hard it would be or that it would be impossible when I said I wanted to try breastfeeding my twins. I think the main thing is not to have any expectations and just be open-minded.
“Breastfeeding is not for everyone, going on this solo journey is not everyone but I think you know what’s best for you and you know what is right for you and for your baby/babies and there is no shame in having to change plans if things don’t work out.”
