The Miracle of IVF.

• Author: Prudenti, Jennifer
• Position: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - In vitro fertilization

BECOMING A PARENT is supposed to be an instinctive and natural process, a rite of passage, if you will, for every woman willing to take that path, and although I officially am starting my second trimester, I have to be honest with you: this still feels surreal to me and I have yet to let go 100% and allow myself to feel pure joy and excitement. I still feel the need to protect my emotions and be strong--just in case. This is one of the many "aftershocks" of IVF that we aspiring mothers endure, wherein, essentially, we are battling too many disappointments coupled with entirely too much information (that we do not need) and not enough information (that we do need).

What is IVF exactly? In layman's terms, IVF is the acronym for in vitro fertilization, a process of fertilization that manually combines an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. Once successful fertilization has been achieved, the embryo that results from this process is transferred, which involves physically inserting the embryo into the uterus.

I knew at age 25 that I never would be able to conceive a child without the direct medical intervention of in vitro. This information was relayed to me following an ectopic pregnancy that nearly cost me my life but, in the end, cost me both fallopian tubes. When I first learned of this complication, I did not grasp the implications fully, and since starting a family was not exactly at the top of my list, it was not something that I paid close attention to.

Now, fast-forward 13 years and my husband Marty and I are anxious to get started on our family. I met Marty more than 10 years after this occurred, when I was about 36 years old. By that time, I had, of course, survived a series of failed relationships and reached a point where I mentally was ready to settle down. We met through his cousin Marc, who was a friend of mine, and our relationship progressed pretty quickly with us moving in together after six months and becoming engaged at the end of our first year together. At that point, we were ready emotionally to have kids, and being the kind of person who always has worn my heart on my sleeve about everything in my life, I had been open and honest with him and his family from the beginning about the complications inherent with any endeavor on my part to conceive a child. Marty and I married on May 25, 2007, and we started the IVF process the moment we returned from our honeymoon. Fortunately for us, we were both mature enough and in a...