A Long Road Through Infertility to Parenthood
Lacey Berning dreamed of having a little girl. What she never imagined, however, was that the journey to that child would be wrought with delays and heartache. But Lacey never gave up hope, and with support from a team of Mayo Clinic infertility specialists, she and her husband finally realized their dream of becoming parents.
Like
most mothers, Lacey Berning has a pregnancy story filled with happiness,
transformation and new life. But Lacey’s journey to having her baby also
involved loss, sickness and lots of needles.
For Lacey and her husband, Seth, however, the waiting, worry and needlesticks — a necessary component of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process they went through to become pregnant — along with the extreme nausea and vomiting Lacey experienced while pregnant, fade away when they look at their daughter, Brielle.
“My
pregnancy was awful. I was really sick,” Lacey says. “I was going in
for fluids every three days at the hospital, and I lost 15 pounds before the
third trimester. But it’s one of those things where I just kept thinking how
lucky I was and just couldn’t complain about being sick because it was a
miracle I was pregnant.”
The
odds of Lacey and Seth conceiving naturally were minute because both of them
had fertility issues. Even using IVF, the couple had less than a 50-50 chance
of achieving a live birth. But Lacey, who always dreamed of having a daughter,
had to give it a shot. “I knew I could never live with myself if we didn’t
try,” she says.
She and Seth are forever glad that they did. With the support of a Mayo Clinic team from the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility that included Zaraq Khan, M.B.B.S, and Elizabeth Stewart, M.D., the couple achieved pregnancy following one cycle of egg stimulation, retrieval and embryo transfer. On July 5, 2018, Brielle was born.
Now
Lacey is happy to share her family’s story with others. “You always hear
about the bad stories where patients leave unsatisfied,” she says. “I
thought if I could give some positivity, even if I change one person’s mind,
and they get the miracle of having kids, then it’s totally worth it.”
Frustration, elation and anguish
When
they decided they wanted to have a baby, Lacey and Seth, who live in Eyota,
Minnesota, had no idea that they might face infertility. But after a year of
trying to conceive, Lacey, who was 28 at the time, grew concerned that
something was wrong. She took those concerns to her Mayo Clinic primary care
physician.
Lacey’s doctor ordered a hormone test to measure her ovarian reserve. That test came back below normal. Lacey was directed to track her menstrual cycle to hone in on her most fertile time. For about a year, Lacey recorded her cycles while she and Seth kept trying. When that didn’t work, Lacey made an appointment in Mayo Clinic’s Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. At the visit, Lacey was prescribed clomiphene — a medication that causes ovulation.
“The first month, nothing happened. The second month is when we got pregnant for the first time,” Lacey says. “We did an ultrasound early, and at six weeks, everything was good. We had another ultrasound at eight weeks, and they told us that once there is a heartbeat, the odds of losing a baby are a lot less, so we told our parents.”
An ultrasound at 10 weeks came back normal, as did one a week later. However, a day after that appointment, Lacey had a miscarriage at home. When they went to the hospital, Lacey and Seth were met by Cassandra Liss, a certified nurse-midwife in Mayo Clinic’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“When
Cassie came in into the room, she looked at me,” Lacey says. “I will
never forget seeing her. With tears in her eyes, she said: ‘I know we will see
you again, and I know you will have a positive outcome. You just have to hang
in there.’ Those words are burned into my mind.”
Genetic testing revealed the fetus carried a chromosomal defect that would have resulted in an abbreviated life expectancy had the child survived pregnancy. In addition, test results showed it had been a partial molar pregnancy. That meant that Lacey’s placental tissue formed abnormally and couldn’t support the developing fetus.
“For young patients like Lacey, molar pregnancy is a difficult diagnosis because it jeopardizes a lot of timelines for getting pregnant.”
Zaraq Khan, M.B.B.S.
Women
who have molar or partial molar pregnancies require extremely close monitoring
and follow-up care because the condition can lead to a serious disorder known
as gestational trophoblastic disease in which abnormal placental cells in the
uterus develop into fast-growing tumors akin to cancer.
“For
young patients like Lacey, molar pregnancy is a difficult diagnosis because it
jeopardizes a lot of timelines for getting pregnant,” Dr. Khan says. “We
have to be more hands-on with monitoring to make sure their pregnancy hormone
levels come back to normal for a certain time period before we can start
talking about them trying again. For fertility patients, time is of the
essence. Telling them they have to wait for six months to a year can be devastating.”
Waiting, testing and success
Following
the miscarriage, Lacey went on birth control to prevent another pregnancy
because becoming pregnant at that point would cause abnormal placental tissue
to quickly multiply. Her pregnancy hormone levels initially were checked every
two weeks and then every month to monitor her levels.
“All
fertility care is very high-anxiety provoking,” Dr. Khan says. “But
for her, it was even more because she was just waiting out a condition where we
wanted to make sure she was healthy first before we could start talking about
pregnancy planning.”
In
November 2017, after eight months of monitoring, Lacey’s pregnancy hormone
levels were normal, and she was cleared to begin fertility treatment again. For
the couple, resuming their efforts to conceive meant a new round of testing — this
time for Seth. His tests reveal a below-normal sperm count. That result coupled
with Lacey’s low ovarian reserve led the couple’s medical team to suggest IVF.
“They
were in a unique situation where there was room for improvement on both sides,”
Dr. Khan says. “I talked to them about the best way of approaching this
appropriately and aggressively with IVF.”
The couple waited to begin the process until the following September. On their wedding anniversary, Lacey gave herself the first injection to begin stimulating her ovaries. The daily injections continued for 10 days. Then the day before her egg retrieval, Seth gave Lacey an intramuscular shot that prompted her ovaries to release the mature eggs.
Lacey’s
care team retrieved 13 eggs. Four of them survived fertilization and grew into
embryos. Her team monitored the embryos’ growth, and five days after retrieval,
one embryo was transferred into Lacey. “I remember Zaraq saying, ‘This is
the one that is going to be your baby,” Lacey says. “He was always
super optimistic. Both he and Dr. Stewart were really good to work with. “
Fourteen
days after the embryo transfer, Lacey took a home pregnancy test. “My
husband and I couldn’t decide who got to look at the pregnancy test first, so I
peed on two sticks and gave him one to look at. We counted down and looked at
the same time. They both said pregnant.”
Illness, infusions and wonder
At
Lacey’s first ultrasound a month later, the baby’s heartbeat was strong and
easy to find. “They told us we were due on the Fourth of July,” she
says. “Obviously, we were just stoked.”
Lacey
held on tight to that emotion through her pregnancy, the first two-thirds of
which required IV infusion therapy to manage relentless nausea, daily vomiting
and extreme dehydration. “Christmas morning, I was in getting fluids. New
Year’s morning, I was in getting fluids. It was rough, but (the infusions) were
a game-changer,” Lacey says.
“People tell you what a miracle having a kid is, and it’s just amazing how your heart triples in size the day they’re born.”
Lacey Berning
Lacey’s
extreme nausea subsided in her third trimester, and she gained back seven
pounds. In the days leading up to July 4, Lacey felt great. “The third of
July, I felt so good. I was like, ‘There is no way this baby is coming
tomorrow.”
At 5 a.m. the next day, Lacey woke up having contractions. Throughout the day, she kept herself busy while the contractions went from seven minutes apart to two, which is the point at which she was directed to go Mayo Clinic Hospital — Rochester, Methodist Campus. Lacey’s labor slowly progressed until early the morning of July 5, when she was finally ready to begin pushing. After just 15 minutes of hard labor, Brielle entered the world.
“People
tell you what a miracle having a kid is, and it’s just amazing how your heart triples
in size the day they’re born,” Lacey says. “I knew I would love my
kid, but you don’t realize how much.”
Their
child, Lacey says, is the light of her family’s life. “She is this little
girl who is so spoiled and loved. There’s just something special about having a
little girl. All her little boy cousins think she’s just the bees’ knees.”
Although
the couple has two more embryos frozen and will consider trying for a second
child in the future, simply having their daughter is a gift. “In a perfect
world, we would love to have one more,” Lacey says. “But I know that
if it doesn’t work out, I’m totally satisfied with our little miracle. I feel
lucky to have Brielle.”
HELPFUL LINKS
- Learn more about in vitro fertilization.
- Check out the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.
- Explore Mayo Clinic.
- Request an appointment.