Turning points: Sept 05 - Megan Basser

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It only takes one moment or heartfelt decision to change your life forever. Melisande Clarke and Josephine Brouard investigate.

Megan Basser, 40,

Endured five years of infertility treatment before giving birth to triplets. Three years later she conceived again, this time naturally.

“When I started to feel sick it hit me like a bolt of lightning and I thought, ‘Oh no’. It never occurred to me that becoming pregnant could be so uncomplicated. We were living in London. The triplets [Harry, Joe and Charlie, now six] had been ill and I was also feeling off-colour. I walked past a roast chicken shop and the smell made me nauseous, in exactly the same way as it had when I was pregnant with the boys.

“For two days I tried to tell Ian [Megan’s husband of 18 years] that I was pregnant, but I didn’t know how to do it. When I finally told him it took him a long time to get used to the idea. We were both a bit stunned. The triplets had just turned three and life was starting to get a whole lot easier.

“Five years of infertility treatment followed by triplets had just about done us in. We’d had infertility treatment in Melbourne and finally New York, where the clinic was run like Grand Central Station. You took a number and went to a huge waiting room; you were shuffled through in a production line. It was all very efficient but there was no kindness or warmth, which you want when you’re going through such an emotional time.

“I was constantly anxious during my pregnancy with the triplets, so it wasn’t an experience I enjoyed. At 12 weeks a multiple-birth specialist outlined all the risks – cerebral palsy, premature birth, blindness – and asked if we wanted a ‘reduction’, but when we saw three healthy little people in there it wasn’t a decision that we felt we could make.

“The more you rest and eat, the better it is for multiple births, so I was on bed rest for the last 12 weeks and every morning Ian used to cook me a huge breakfast of waffles and eggs. All up I put on 35 kilos! I was strapped to a foetal monitor at home because even at 20 weeks I was having four or five contractions an hour. The triplets were born at 35 weeks and after that the sleep deprivation was mind-numbing. I was constantly putting the boys back into the wrong cots or forgetting which one I’d fed.

“It was so different with Teddy [Megan and Ian’s youngest]. I couldn’t believe how natural pregnancy could be. After an extremely invasive first pregnancy and birth, I got to see how the other half does it. It was such a joy to have just one baby to look after; it made me wish I’d had more time for the triplets in the early days. For the first time I felt like a competent mother.

“ The boys get on really well, and Ted runs the place. My experiences have made me more patient; taught me not to worry about the dumb things. Ian and I have always been a close couple but we’re even closer now. Knowing that you can rely on someone in times of real emotional hardship is a wonderful feeling. And moving countries at the same time – if anything was going to test us that was, and we got through it pretty well.”

Infertility: mystery and misconception

Infertility isn’t a modern dilemma, but it wasn’t until 1955 that Dr Robert Edwards began researching fertility in mice and the quest for a solution to infertility began in earnest. His work with Dr Patrick Steptoe eventually led to the first IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) baby, Louise Brown, who was born in 1978. Since that time IVF pregnancies have become commonplace although conception, assisted or otherwise, isn’t as straightforward as it seems:

• At age 22 a fertile woman has a 25 per cent chance of falling pregnant each month. By age 36 that figure decreases to 15 percent, and by age 43 it dips to 5 per cent.
• In 30 per cent of cases where couples have trouble conceiving no cause can be identified. Women who have had trouble conceiving due to unidentified causes, and who have subsequently enjoyed a successful IVF pregnancy, have been known to later become pregnant naturally.

Common reasons couples fail to conceive include:

• Blocked fallopian tubes
• No ovulation
• Inflammation of the fallopian tubes
• Endometriosis
• Low sperm count
• Polyps and fibroids in the uterus

Assisted conception treatments available include:

• Assisted insemination (AI), where sperm is introduced into the cervix or uterus via a plastic tube.
• In-vitro fertilisation, where fertilisation takes place outside the womb and the foetus is implanted into the uterus.
• Ovulation induction, where ovulation is assisted through drug therapy.

Multiple choice:

Multiple in-vitro fertilisation births can result when two or more embryos are transferred to the womb in the hope that at least one of them will lead to a successful pregnancy. The result, however, is often multiplied – in Australia in 2001 more than one in five IVF pregnancies resulted in the birth of twins or triplets.

Unfortunately, multiple pregnancies invariably increase the risk of pregnancy and birth complications, as well as increasing the risk of birth defects like cerebral palsy. As such, the trend today is to transfer just one embryo to the womb. This process has been assisted by improved techniques, which now allow embryos to be harvested for five days (instead of only two), increasing their quality, and thereby reducing the need for more than one embryo to be implanted.

Photography: Andrew Lehmann styling: Kim Ellmer. Hair & make-up: Ruth Sebire. Megan wears clothes from husk; boys all wear clothes by esprit; furniture from ikea.