My name is Catherine and I am a Daughter, Sister, Wife and mother to two boys / men. How did that happen so quickly 😯 !!

I am going to zoom back almost 29 years ago to when my whole "Womb" journey started. Before that, I had actively disconnected from my womb to channel all my energies into my career as an I.T. Network Manager. Then in 1996, I married my main man Mark. Both of us worked full time, were climbing the corporate ladder, but there was always the thought about starting to have a family. I have to say, Initially, I wasn't overly concerned when we weren't getting pregnant, as I was very busy in my I.T. job. Eventually, we did go to the GP who told us that it can take at least a year for a couple to get pregnant, but he referred us to Professor Harrison in the Rotunda Hospital and we discovered I had endometriosis, high prolactin levels (stress) and FSH. During the laparoscopy the endo was cleared up and we decided to try IVF/ICSI.

I have to say, I was both daunted by the idea of doing IVF due to my phobia of needles, but I was also excited, thinking I was going to end up with twins 🤣!!! I was very optimistic. How naive was I ?! The journey wasn't at all what I expected, navigating those highs and lows, and it became apparent very quickly that I wasn't responding the way they would have liked. I felt helpless. We managed to get 5 eggs and 3 fertilised and they put the 3 back ! Yes, they did that back then !!! So then we found ourselves in the 2 week wait. The torture waiting to take the pregnancy test. D-day then arrived and I took the test. It was a big fat negative. We were absolutely devasted. For us, it was pure grief because we knew that there were 3 little living parts of us that didn't survive.

We went for a follow up appointment in the Rotunda where the doctor told us to "Consider our quality of life without children". It was blunt, it was negative and gave us no hope. I was devastated. We took some time out to re-group, took a holiday and then decided we would give it one more try. This time we went to Sims clinic where they were a lot more optimistic. We embarked on our second IVF/ICSI cycle. The meds definitely didn't agree with me as my whole body went into overdrive and I found I could not sleep. It took me years before my sleep sorted itself out. Having said all that, same result, 5 eggs, 3 put back and another big fat negative. The grief was just terrible and nobody around me understood how we were feeling. It was time for another holiday and re-group.

It was during these IVF cycles that I embarked on my holistic lifestyle. I started looking at what I was putting on my skin, what I was eating, I gave up coffee, and generally started looking after my body and my mind.

We had always said that we would only do 2 IVFs and if they didn't work, then we would start on the Adoption route because we were guaranteed to have a baby by the end of it. So, after 3 years of interviews with social workers, parenting courses, piles and piles of legal paperwork, we eventually brought our first son home to Ireland. He was 6 months old, to the day. It was amazing. He is amazing ! However, 3 days home I became to feel very unwell. I thought all the travelling had finally caught up with me. At 5 days home, I decided to take a trip to the pharmacy and get a pregnancy test. OH, MY, GOD. 2 lines came up. I rang a friend of mine and I was asking if it was possible to get a false positive and she told me I was more likely to get a false negative. So back into the car again, with my little man in toe, and back to the pharmacy to get a test that said Pregnant/No Pregnant. Took the second test and it came up "PREGNANT". I was in complete shock. After 6 years, I had never even seen a positive pregnancy test. Next I called my hubby in work. Just couldn't hold it to myself. When I broke the news, the line just went really, really quiet. Then all I heard was ...."For f&*% sake. We couldn't believe it. Here we were with a little 6 month old baby and another on the way.

I began to believe it very quickly after that. I was never so sick in all my life. I felt like I had a tummy bug for 7 months of the pregnancy and lost piles of weight. Even doing an online shop and scouring the meat aisle, caused my stomach to heave !! And all I could think was, is the baby getting enough because I certainly wasn't getting enough. I was weak and could barely walk up the stairs. But my baby was thriving, even though I mainly lived off Complan. He took everything he needed from me and when he was born, he was a very healthy 7lb 2oz. So I gave up my job in I.T. and decided to throw myself into the job of being a full time mum to my 2 sons. It was harder than I expected but also one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever done, and continue to do.

When my boys went to school, I decided to embark on a holistic path and trained in Reflexology. I saw a cancellation for a Reflexology training course come up locally on facebook and I jumped at the chance. I loved every single minute of the training and little did I know where this was going to lead me. Before I even had my Reflexology Diploma, I had already decided that I would specialise in Fertility, having "lived" the path, I knew exactly how it feels to be on a fertility journey and of course, a pregnancy journey and I am now on my "Moon pause" journey, and have treatments for all of them. I expanded my training over the years, some of which include Yoga with Yoga alliance and Emotional Freedom Technique with EFT International, Fertile Body Method (Visualisation) etc. I employ these techniques in my niche fields of Fertility, Pregnancy and Menopause. And I am delighted to report that I have won 4 rewards for Reflexology and Mind-Body approaches.

I continue to expand my knowledge to bring expertise to those who want to fulfill their life's dream of becoming parents. I do this by connecting them with their wombspace, reflexology, yoga, visualisation and EFT.

I look forward to catching up with you sometime !

Best wishes