Having children is one of the most priceless gifts couples could have and couples who are experiencing difficulties receiving these gifts would understandably be all too willing to give every option on the table a chance.  One of the most popular options is IVF or in vitro fertilization – the option I chose to take in my journey to motherhood.  It is one of the safest, most affordable, and widely accepted assisted reproductive procedures all over the world.  IVF, however, is not for everyone. Successful pregnancy and consequently live birth through IVF involves a host of factors that you should take into consideration before you make your decision.

The process of IVF is highly demanding both financially and physically.  IVF cost in Singapore would come up to about SGD18,000 or nearly $13,000 for one cycle alone.  You have to be ready to shoulder the IVF cost of several cycles given that studies suggest an average of three to six cycles of IVF treatment before successful pregnancy is achieved.  Once you have the cost considerations settled, you have to weigh your physical considerations.  To start with, IVF could be a good option for you if you are younger than 35 years old – an average success rate of 50% is observed in clinical studies of IVF procedures in subjects within this age range.  The duration of fertility issues as well as other issues concerning your ovarian function would also influence the success rate of your IVF procedure.

Finally, as the IVF cost is not cheap, you want to make sure that are indeed ready to go through what the procedure requires and that you will be able to complete your IVF cycles until you successfully conceive.  In previous posts, I have broken down the IVF cost for you and somehow let you in on what I had to go through in my journey to motherhood.  Now, to help you determine whether you are ready for an IVF procedure or not, here’s a quick look at how IVF is done:

1. After the necessary medical checks, your doctor will start you on hormonal medication to stimulate your ovaries for egg production.  This was quite a challenge for me since I am afraid of needles.  You will have to inject this medication yourself or with the help of your partner at home at the same time everyday until the follicles are ready as determined by a laboratory scan.

2.It’s back to the hospital again to have your eggs retrieved either through a needle inserted through your vagina or a laparoscopic operation.  Don’t worry, you will be sedated during the procedure and will not feel a thing. Your eggs will then be combined with your partner’s sperm in a laboratory dish to start the process of in vitro fertilization.

3.And Once fertilization is achieved, usually after a few days, the embryo is placed into your uterus through the cervix with the aid of a catheter.  It takes a two week wait, on bed rest combined with hormonal treatment, in order to determine whether the embryo has successfully latched on to the uterine wall and the pregnancy is confirmed.

Becoming a mother is one of the best things that have ever happened to me. It wasn’t easy to conceive Sean. We underwent IVF treatment because we didn’t have luck doing it naturally. Doing the IVF treatment was no walk in the park. It required everyday injections, lots of waiting time (read: stress) and expenses as well.

It wasn’t easy as we didn’t get a successful pregnancy on our first attempts. The first cycle I did got pregnant but there was no heartbeat. It took as three IVF cycles to get pregnant. When I found out I was pregnant again, I was ecstatic!

The day that Sean was born, I feel like I have been reborn as well. The feeling is unexplainable. I just love my baby boy to bits.

What is your most memorable moment as a mother? The post with the most comments will win the cash prize.

I don’t look glamorous here and all but for me this is my most beautiful moment.

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One winner of Mei Tai Baby Carrier  chosen via random.org  (All the entries will be raffled and one lucky blogger will win Mei Tai Baby Carrier)

One winner of $50 for the post with most comments on their blog post.

Mechanics:

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Goodluck and Happy Mother’s Day Everyone!

If you have been a reader of MommaWannabe for a long time, you would know that Sean’s arrival is much awaited by me and my husband. It has been a long tedious journey we had to go through. To conceive him we had to go through several IVF cycles,  and it was not that easy. It involved everyday injections on my part. We got lucky only on the third try.

And now we are almost there. I am very very happy that we are going to meet him real soon. I know his arrival will be a life changing event. I am excited in showing my baby to the whole world so while waiting for my labor, I will start preparing the baby photo cards I would like to send to friends and families.

Great thing that there are now websites like babycardsnow.co.uk where you can order baby cards for all kinds of occasion. The cards they offer are high quality and comes with free envelopes. It also only takes 5 days to get your order at your mailbox.

So if you are a mom or an expectant mom like me do check out their site, I am sure you will love it.

We did try for another embryo transfer for the second time and thought I wouldn’t stay in bed for two weeks this time. Other women don’t even know that they are pregnant after a month, so they just live like as always. I didn’t got pregnant that second time so this time I decided to stay on bedrest again for two weeks since I got a good result the first time when I did it this way.

So let’s hope it all works out this time.

I couldn’t leave you here hanging so I asked some of my good friends to be my guest poster for me this coming days or if many more would like to be a guestpost, this might be a regular thing at MommaWannabe. If you want to do guestpost too here at MommaWannabe, do let me know by filling in the contact form.

Note: The cost of the medicines could vary from case to case.

Consultation Fees: 150 + 60 +60+60 +60+60 + 60 = 510 ( USD 365 )

Lab tests: 120 + 75 + 170 +75 + 82 = 522 ( USD 373 )

Ovulation Medicine: 260 + 830 + 830 +399  +694 = 3,013 ( USD 2,155 )

Doctor’s Fee: 1,070 + 430 (egg retrieval) + 750 ( Embryo Transfer) = 2,250 ( USD 1,610 )

Hospital Charges: 7,703 (egg retrieval)  1,754 (Embryo Transfer) = 9,457 ( USD 6,765 )

Freezing of Embryo: 600 ( USD 430 )

1 Year Embryo/ Egg Storage Fee: 200 ( USD 142 )

Pregnancy support medicine: 942 +376 +51 +120 = 1,489 ( USD 1,065 )

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Total Cost for 1 Cycle : SGD 18,050 or ( USD 12,910 )

If you plan to do IVF  in Singapore you should know that one cycle takes about 6 weeks starting from taking the medication. I suggest you contact several clinics you want to visit and ask them everything you need to know as early as 2 months before your planned IVF cycle.

I have been through this before so I try not to drive myself crazy as much as I can. So I busy myself with blogging and talking to you guys. I visit IVF forums and read experiences from fellow women doing IVF. It’s a great way to ease my mind because I know I am now alone in what I am going through. I also read a lot of Baby and child websites to broaden my knowledge about pregnancy.

I don’t know if  peeing more often and wanting to eat all the time are pregnancy symptoms.For the latter, I am thinking  that, maybe I am just eating more because I am bored or to

I don’t want to get too excited this time because it’s hard if later on I hear the bad news. I don’t want to sound so negative, I am just trying to protect myself from heartaches.

I hope that my next period normalize. My doctor said that I need to get atleast 3 normal periods before we can consider the Embryo Transfer again. He told me to visit the clinic when I get my 2nd period, to check (I guess) if my body is already getting back to normal.

So I am guessing we would do it again in November – if all works out.

This vacation is really doing me good…I am having a great time catching up with my family, and later on I will be meeting up with some friends as well.

I am still having some bleeding, I got scared when I got some heavy bleeding at first, after having very little bleeding the days before that but I guess there are things that still needs to get out of my body.

When I get back, I will be reading alot on IVF and also Pregnancy articles, to educate myself better on this.

Somehow I still think maybe I did something wrong. I know I know I should stop beating myself up…

Anyway I am signing off now and will go back in vacation mode. Hope all is well with you and see you when I get back!!!

I was home bound for two weeks as you all know. It was boring to stay all day everyday at home. I thought to myself, “ Now I know how it is to be on house arrest.”

Some of the things you can do too if you are on house arrest, I mean on a bed rest :

1. You can do some interior design planning or if you are expecting a baby you can plan for his/her room already.

2. You can also busy yourself in organizing photo albums.

3. You might have bought books you still have not found time to read yet, so this is a great opportunity to catch up on your reading.

Just take it easy!