Laura’s IVF Journey: IVF and Surprise Identical Twins

Their fertility journey led them through ovulation induction and eventually to IVF, where they experienced remarkable success despite challenging odds. “We got nine eggs collected from one cycle and only two blastocysts,” Laura recalls. “Two embryos, we got three children, which is amazing.” Their first embryo resulted in son Lucas, while their second embryo, transferred two years later, unexpectedly split into identical twins Alexander and Riley.

For her first pregnancy, Laura sought care that aligned with her birth preferences, eventually finding Dr. David O’Callaghan at St. Vincent’s Private. “He was wonderful, with a beautiful bedside manner, incredibly informed, supportive, and a great advocate for me and my husband,” she shares. Laura prepared thoroughly for birth, immersing herself in education: “All the books, all the podcasts… Australian Birth Stories, lots of books and resources online. And I did the Rhea Dempsey two-day workshop.”

This preparation proved valuable when Laura went into spontaneous labour at 39 weeks and 2 days. “I woke up at 4am. I started having cramping, basically felt like period pain,” she remembers. The early stages of labour progressed gradually, allowing Laura to attend a committee meeting and even visit a local café with her sister. “In the cafe in North Fitzroy, I was having full-on contractions quite quickly,” she recalls with amusement.

Laura laboured at home until evening, using a TENS machine, hot showers, and yoga poses to manage contractions. “I used an eye mask so I had that sensory deprivation and basically just dealing and doing all the techniques and strategies that I learned through the Rhea Dempsey course,” she explains. By 6pm, they headed to the hospital, where Laura discovered she was only 3cm dilated – much earlier in labour than she had anticipated.

A challenging moment came around 3am when Laura experienced cervical swelling. “My body was pushing without me actually being ready and I wasn’t fully dilated. I was around six or seven centimetres at this point,” she describes. “That was the worst part of the whole labour. That was worse than the actual pushing stage.” Eventually, the midwife manually adjusted the cervical lip, allowing Laura to progress to complete dilation.

After an hour and a half of pushing, Lucas was born at 5:55am. “I put Bubba on my chest. And I went into complete shock. My body shakes, hot and cold and just overwhelmed by the physical experience,” Laura shares of those first moments with her son. They stayed five nights in the hospital, including two nights at the Park Hyatt and one night in special care when Lucas developed jaundice.

When Laura became pregnant again through a frozen embryo transfer, everything changed at her seven-week scan. “My obstetrician did the scan, found the heartbeats or the embryo… And then he got the wand and moved it to the other side of my tummy, and up popped another embryo, up popped another heartbeat,” Laura recounts. “I just said to him, ‘There are two.’ And he looked at me, he looked at the scan, he looked back at me… He didn’t say anything for a long time.”

The twin pregnancy presented significant challenges compared to her first. “Twin pregnancy for me was very, very challenging. A real chalk and cheese compared to my first with Lucas,” Laura admits. With a toddler to chase and the high-risk nature of her pregnancy, Laura felt constantly nauseous and exhausted.

Initially, Laura hoped for another vaginal birth, as both twins were head down until 33 weeks. However, everything changed at her scan that week: “The sonographer said, ‘Oh, twin one is flipped. Twin one is feet down.’ And in such a blunt, brutal way, I remember just basically bursting into tears.” This meant a cesarean birth was likely necessary, requiring Laura to shift her expectations and prepare for a different birth experience.

Despite planning for a caesarean at 37 weeks, Laura’s waters broke unexpectedly at 34.5 weeks. “I’d run around all day… literally taking three minutes to have a rest and have a break, lying down on the bed. And all of a sudden, a bit of a pop and just a gush of water,” she recalls. Within half an hour of arriving at the hospital, Laura was having contractions, and an emergency cesarean was performed.

In theatre, the obstetrician confirmed the urgency – Laura was already 3cm dilated with Riley’s feet beginning to emerge. “He pulled him out and gave his feet to me to touch, and I could hold his feet and kind of pat his feet,” Laura remembers of Riley’s birth. “Two minutes later, they’d got twin two, Alexander out. And again, he came out screaming.”

Both twins were born healthy but small, just over and under 2kg respectively. They spent 19 nights in special care, primarily to gain weight. “They just were little and early, needed to put a bit more weight on,” Laura explains. This created a surreal experience of going home without her babies each night. “It was weird. It was bizarre. So it was like we never had them in a way. And we’re coming home to our toddler and looking after him.”

Now at five and a half months old, the twins face feeding challenges with bottle aversion. “We’re dealing with basically them fussing and refusing to take a bottle,” Laura shares. “It got to a point of real crisis where my husband had to stop work and take carer’s leave for quite a few weeks.” Laura has connected with Melbourne Multiples Network, which provides volunteers to help with the twins’ care.

Despite these challenges, Laura maintains her well-being through swimming, yoga, walking, and connecting with other twin parents. “I know the likelihood with twin families in terms of mental health, postnatal anxiety and depression is much, much higher. Basically every risk factor you can have increases with twins,” she acknowledges.