A Scottish woman who thought she was going through menopause has finally been able to complete her family after welcoming a miracle baby naturally following eight miscarriages and a failed round of IVF.
Sam Mace, 43, was already mum to four-year-old Freddie, who was born via IVF, and was step-mum to 12-year-old Lilly, but longed for a third child and spent £7,000 on blood tests and rounds of IVF with her husband John, also 43.
And after accepting that they were finished trying for more children, Sam miraculously fell pregnant naturally in 2020, with the mum and her husband now the proud parents of 15-month-old daughter Charlotte.
Sam, a pilates instructor and fertility mentor from St Andrews, Scotland, said: "Charlotte was a complete surprise.
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"I had been through such a traumatising fertility journey, including losing two embryos from our first round of IVF to a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.
"There were so many times where I thought that my role as a mother was meant to be for my step-daughter Lilly, 12. Now, I really feel like our family is complete now that I've had my rainbow babies!"
When Sam fell pregnant with Charlotte, she initially believed she was going through menopause but was overjoyed when she took a pregnancy test and realised the truth.
She added: "It was early in 2020 around February, and my period had become irregular, but I thought I was menopausal, and I even went to the GP for tests. Then, I noticed my sense of smell had really heightened, and I was very nauseous.
"I did a pregnancy test and it was a total shock when it was positive. To think of everything else we went through to get here, Charlotte was so worth the wait, she's completed our family."
The mum and her husband had been trying to start a family together since Sam was 35, but tragically, none of their naturally conceived or first round of IVF children had a heartbeat at their eight-week scan.
Sam didn't qualify for IVF through the NHS at first because she was still able to conceive naturally, so she forked out £3,000 for a private round - but sadly lost both embryos.
She explained: "My immune system would go into overdrive when I was pregnant, and I had three miscarriages before we decided to try IVF.
"We weren't as high on the list for IVF on the NHS because I was still getting pregnant, so we paid for a private round when I was 37. We got two embryos, which were both implanted, but I fell into a 1 in 1,000 situation where one miscarried and the other was ectopic.
"We qualified for IVF on the NHS a few months later but I had to delay it because I was so traumatised from that experience."
After going through immunology testing at a miscarriage clinic in Epsom, Sam eventually decided to go through another round of IVF when she was 38 - which is when she was blessed with her son, Freddie.
She said: "We only implanted one, and that was the pregnancy that blessed us with my son Freddie, who's now four.
"We kept the other embryo and had it transferred two years later, but sadly after the two-week wait the embryo had failed to implant."
Following her final failed pregnancy, Sam had decided she was finished trying to have more children - before Charlotte came along and changed her life.
She said: "We decided to leave it at that, and I thought I just wasn't meant to have another baby.
"Two years later, and now we have Charlotte as well! Our miracle, I never thought I would reach the day where my story ends with two rainbow babies."
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