Couple Seeks Treatment after Miscarriage
Emily Beard spent the majority of her 30s just trying to sustain a full-term pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby. After four miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy – but not ready to give up – she says she just needed someone “to stand by me, fight along with me and cheer me on.” That someone was Nashville fertility specialist Abby C. Eblen, M.D., of Nashville Fertility Center.
Devastation of Miscarriage
Emily, now 39, had been trying to have a baby with her husband, Chuck, since she was 33. “My OBGYN had tested me for a number of minor things that might have caused me to miscarry, but there were no red flags,” she says.
In the meantime, Emily felt devastated and isolated, and she even distanced herself from friends over the situation. “It seemed people couldn’t fully understand what I was going through, and I felt like I had to protect myself from their insensitivities,” she relates. “This was so different from other types of losses in which you can openly mourn them, and it’s so much more personal. The instant you find out you’re pregnant, you build hopes and dreams for this child you longed for, only to have it all just vanish.”
During their five years of trying to conceive, she and Chuck built a strong team of knowledgeable support. Finding an empathetic OBGYN who would understand her issues was incredibly helpful, and she and her husband eventually traveled to Kentucky to a physician her mother-in-law knew. He treated her with several intrauterine insemination procedures, but still with no success. He suggested that she go to Nashville Fertility Center.
In Search of an Answer
Emily said she hadn’t really considered going to a fertility center. “Knowing that we could get pregnant is what kept us from pursuing fertility treatments or adoption,” she says.
She attended classes at Nashville Fertility Center to find out about her options. She learned she could get preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) to determine if she had a healthy embryo to transfer back into her uterus as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF). With her history of miscarriages, having each embryo genetically tested made the most sense.
PGS and Dr. Eblen to the Rescue
The Nashville Fertility Center team retrieved 18 eggs from Emily and fertilized nine. Emily was surprised to find after PGS that only one actually resulted in a healthy embryo.
But that was the trick – Emily delivered healthy Avett Otis on Dec. 26, 2015. “He is beautiful and perfect, and the light of my life!” she says.
What also made the difference was the caring attitude of Dr. Eblen. “I knew from the moment I started going to her, she was right for me,” Emily says. “She even followed up with me after Avett’s birth to share in my joy!”
So Appreciative
Emily says she and Chuck are now so appreciative of what they have in their new baby boy. Even though PGS was not inexpensive, she said it was very much worth the additional cost. “After everything else we had been through, this journey and the help we received was just what we needed.”
Find Out More
Contact us to learn more about overcoming infertility and pregnancy issues. Our team has been providing advanced reproductive health care to patients in Tennessee and surrounding states since 1991.
