This Spanish couple had been trying to have a child for twenty years. After 14 miscarriages, including unsuccessful in vitro fertilization, they finally became parents for the first time!
A miracle baby! After entering a competition to win a series of IVF treatments, Jo Scollen, 47, and her husband Jason, 49, became parents!
They had been trying to conceive a baby for twenty years. After 14 miscarriages, including unsuccessful in vitro fertilization, this couple from Spain gave birth to a baby girl named Jessica Rose in October 2019.
A first attempt at IVF
They had dreamed of having a child ever since they met in a pub in Wimbledon, London, in 1998. Unfortunately, pregnancies never lasted more than a few weeks. In 2014, the couple decided to conceive by in vitro fertilization in Spain. "It was something we hadn't tried before and had to try", says Jo.
A glimmer of hope for the young woman, she becomes pregnant following IVF but unfortunately she will have a miscarriage in the same year. "I was about to give up", she confides. "Every pregnancy and miscarriage was different and traumatic in a different way."
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A contest that will change everything
Desperate, the couple gradually begins to lose hope. They then stumble upon a contest that celebrated the birth of IVF's first baby, Louisa Brown, launched by ivfbabble magazine on Facebook. At the end of this competition, it was possible to win an IVF cycle in Cyprus. "I just clicked in a moment of sadness, then I completely forgot about it ", says Jo. "We had been through 14 miscarriages and I thought there was no point in continuing, but then I got the email saying I won!"
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"It was a miracle for us"
In February 2019, the couple traveled to Cyprus for in vitro fertilization. Four weeks later, Jo and Jason find out the result of the blood test: Jo is pregnant.
"We kept thinking that it was a miracle for us. […] With each scan and each week, I was petrified. Throughout the pregnancy, until the birth, we withheld our breath".
After 18 hours of labor and an emergency C-section, the couple welcomed a healthy baby girl named Jessica Rose on October 19, 2019. “Even when she was born, I kept checking to see if she was really there – I still couldn't believe this happened to us. I'm still checking now, but every week she gets more real.”
Today, the couple want to turn to adoption to give Jessica Rose a sister or brother.