Kelly Robertson, 46, welcomed the seclusion Covid-19 provided – in some ways. In March 2020, when the pandemic was announced, she had recently discovered that her fifth round of IVF had been unsuccessful, following two devastating miscarriages in 2018 and 2019. Her plans to go for her sixth round were in limbo, since fertility clinics had closed with immediate effect, with no confirmation when they would reopen.
“It was horrific,” she says. “The early pandemic was such an uncertain time, and I just didn’t know what it would mean for us. I felt I didn’t have the time for these delays. I was 41 at the time, and my husband Mark was 48 – and we were already on our sixth round of IVF. I was so exhausted by it all.
“But in some ways, going into that lockdown bubble was a godsend,” she adds. “We didn’t have to pretend we were okay anymore – we could shut ourselves away and focus on what we wanted to do next. I didn’t have to go to baby showers, get dressed up and plaster on a smile; at the most I had to log on to Zoom, pass on my well wishes and log off again.”
By June 2020 and after months of waiting and wondering, fertility clinics were given the okay to reopen – and Kelly embarked on her next round of IVF.
Happily, she fell pregnant again – but at her seven week scan, it was devastating news once more. “We were told there was something wrong with the embryonic sac. Our dream was shattered all over again,” she says.
Kelly was told she couldn’t have a surgically managed miscarriage (a procedure which removes the pregnancy tissue from the uterus) due to Covid restrictions. “It was devastating for me, because one of my previous miscarriages was very traumatic,” she says. “I went home, broken, and spent an entire day of utter frustration, anger, tears and desperation, as I made phone call after phone call trying to establish if I could somehow have the operation.
“The last thing I wanted was to have this miscarriage at home. I looked into having the op done privately, but it was £2000 – it just didn’t feel fair when it would previously have been available on the NHS.”
Sadly, Kelly was forced to opt for a medically managed miscarriage instead (which involves taking medication to break down the lining of the womb). “I had to go to hospital on my own. It almost felt like I was getting an abortion, which was a horrible thought when I wanted this baby so much. Hours later, it happened at home. I had to return to the hospital for a scan, and I remember seeing my empty womb. Not long ago, I saw my baby there – I remember thinking how much effort it had taken to get her in there, and yet she’d left me so quickly.”
