This is What Dreams are Made of - Interview with Rachel Lyons

In this episode, Zoe explores the devastation of infertility as she speaks with Rachel Lyons, who after a long journey of infertility, found hope and belonging in adoption.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   Rachel met her husband through mutual friends at a NYE fancy dress party, there was instant attraction from both sides and a couple of years later they were married! They began trying for a baby just before they got married, Rachel thought it would take some time as she has a long surgical history with Crohn’s disease. After 9 months of trying the anxiety of it all was really affecting Rachel and so she went to the doctors. they were very understanding and ran tests on her, which all came back normal. They were referred to an IVF clinic and this is where Rachel’s consultant said that there were unknowns associated with her past surgeries but they didn’t know anything specifically, they were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. It was a really isolating, difficult and sad time for Rachel, she felt responsible somehow. The first round of IVF they underwent didn’t work. After this Rachel started having pain in her back, she had to have surgery. Whilst undergoing surgery her surgeon took a look at her ovaries, when she came round, the surgeon gave her some hope by saying she needed to just keep trying to conceive. They underwent another round of IVF, but this didn’t work either. Rachel was in the lowest point in her fertility journey and in her life, she felt that mentally and physically she couldn’t do anymore IVF. After some really scary thoughts and a lot of soul searching she knew she needed to take a different path to parenthood, this led her to adoption. It took Rachel’s husband some time to process everything that had happened so far but once he had decided adoption was the right road to take he was very quick at setting things in motion for them. It was the first time Rachel felt so excited and hopeful for the future, she knew only something amazing would come from the path they were going down. The process for adoption wasn’t too difficult for Rachel and her husband, she thinks this is partly due to the fact they had some great social workers but also because they were emotionally ready to deal with all of the difficult aspects and part of the process. Everything happened quite quickly and they were matched with a little girl and were given half a day after meeting her social worker to get everything together, as they would be bringing her home the next day! They were handed their tiny 3-month-old baby the next day and the emotions they both felt were just indescribable. Everything made sense, the stars aligned and Rachel knew everything they had to go through to get to now was for this incredible thing to happen. Rachel is so passionate about the communities she is in and supports so many women in different ways, giving them the support she never had when she was in such a difficult and isolating place.     BEST MOMENTS   “A special little girl born from her heart”   “Deep down I just always knew there was going to be an aspect of difficulty, I just had that gut feeling”   “Why does my body just keep failing me, why can’t I do what my body should be able to naturally do, I just felt this immense responsibility of it not working”   “I knew it didn’t matter to me how I became a mum, I just knew I had to be a mum”   “I felt like the only thing that was going to come from this experience was something really amazing”   “You can’t take anything personally, it’s not about you it’s about the child”   VALUABLE RESOURCES https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bump-Road-Story-Fertility-Trying-ebook/dp/B08NG3Y5BW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BSEGG3JUCXJ4&dchild=1&keywords=a+bump+in+the+road&qid=1622450226&sprefix=a+bump%2Caps%2C276&sr=8-1   www.petalscharity.org www.tommys.org www.arc-uk.org www.sands.org.uk       ABOUT THE GUEST Rachel Lyons IG @ourlyonspride         ABOUT THE HOST Zoe Cresswell Devoted mother of two (and a big hairy dog), UK trained midwife, doula and personal trainer, specialising in pre and postnatal fitness. Zoe was born in the UK and before moving to Dubai in 2013 and worked as a midwife in central London, both in a birth centre and a very busy NHS hospital. Although late to the scene, Zoe is an aspiring athlete having won numerous triathlons and representing Great Britain where she placed within the top 10 on the world stage. With her husband James, the couple will soon be launching their cloth nappy company, Bop & Bee, where they hope to inspire families to swap a few disposable nappies a day for the more planet friendly option of cloth. Zoe’s goal is to share her knowledge and experience, tell real life stories, manage expectations and open up those often difficult conversations. Zoe’s own motherhood journey has been full of twists and turns as she put everything on hold and went through numerous miscarriages and rounds of IVF.   CONTACT DETAILS Instagram : @zoecresswell_me Facebook: Zoe Cresswell LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-cresswell