I came to Siobhán following 2 miscarriages and wanting to try something different. I had received a diagnosis of polycystic type ovaries from the fertility clinic and initially was placed on clomid. I
fell pregnant on the second treatment but miscarried at 8 weeks.
Six months later and desperate to get pregnant we went the IVF route, I ended up in hospital with hyperstimulation for 2 weeks and sadly had a miscarriage at 10 weeks. At this stage I was despairing and fed up would I ever get and maintain a pregnancy so I quickly made an appointment with Siobhan.
Myself and my husband came to the first appointment and within seconds of looking at my tongue Siobhán had me summed up. Everything she said made absolute sense. With all my rushing to get pregnant I was failing to look after myself. Siobhán took a complete holistic approach, paying close attention to physical as well as mental health. She was also brutally honest! On the first day she said "I can’t guarantee I’ll get you pregnant but I’ll get your body in the best possible position to". Her honesty was refreshing after our spell with fertility clinics where you feel like a number rather than a person.
My husband being a dairy farmer liked her analogies regarding cows, bulls, mares in foal and soil. To some people all of it might seem odd but we are all mammals, reproducing is all around us in nature and it all made 100% sense to us.
So we set about taking the herbs, changing our diet and looking at my lifestyle. I say We and Our because my husband had changes to make too. The herbs are an acquired taste but you do get used to it and I liked to feel I was doing something positive on the fertility journey . My body did respond to the herbs, my cycles were more normal (33-35 day,previously 45-50 day, plus they were bright red rather than brown).
After 8 months I was getting itchy feet. Mentally I was struggling, friends were on babies 2 and 3, wedding anniversaries passing by and still no baby. There were appointments where I travelled home in tears beside my husband, with each month feeling like we’d failed again, one in particular where I cried all the way through a meal in a restaurant ( very embarrassing now looking back, imagine the poor waitress) but I was in a dark place. At this point I went for counselling which I found very beneficial.
So at the 8 month mark I broached, nervously, with Siobhán about the frozen embryos. She didn’t sway us either way but said it was our choice and not to rush into it. She did feel that my body was in a good position now for it. I couldn’t wait any longer. So we made the jump and implanted the two we had.
Siobhán gave us maintaining herbs for the pregnancy. I suffered with bleeding for the first 10 weeks, very nerve wracking with our history of miscarriages. We did lose one of the babies at 9 weeks and we nervously waited to get to the 14 wk mark. I took herbs all the way through my pregnancy and apart from some initial nausea I had a healthy happy pregnancy.
I’m here today looking at my little bundle of joy, amazed that he is here. Writing this I was quite tearful, it’s such a tough journey. You think that it will just happen but when it doesn’t it’s so heartbreaking and mentally exhausting, for me it consumed everything I did.
Definitely going to Siobhan made the difference. Without her guidance, support and advice I believe I would have had several more miscarriages and more rounds of IVF without success. A lot of people think with IVF there is a high success rate but this isn’t true and their stats often show results for positive tests rather than live births.
I will say you have to be willing to put in the effort, take the herbs, follow her advice and accept that it may not happen straight away (not easy I know) but you are doing everything within your control to make it happen. It says something when I got my husband to all her appointments! it’s her no bullshit approach which makes you realise she actually cares about you as a patient.
J & D, July 2018