“I Had My Miracle Baby at 53” A Woman Finally Gives Birth After Spending 25 Years on Infertility Treatment

After 25 long years of struggle trying to get pregnant, a determined 53-year-old mom finally gave birth to her first baby girl. This kid became a pure miracle for the whole family. Yet, before that, the woman had to make a real medical adventure, even being ready to give up once and entirely accept her destiny.

The first decade, and still all the doctors could diagnose was “unexplained infertility”.

Helen Dalglish moved to Cyprus in her 20s with her partner and tried to have a baby there but with no success. At first, their tests revealed no issues, when suddenly doctors said Helen had “unexplained infertility.” Disappointed, they moved back to Scotland.

At the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, she underwent four intrauterine insemination procedures, though it didn’t work. So doctors offered her to try IVF, and she got a free round of the treatment on the NHS. Yet, a decade of treatment went without any result.

Finally, another ’sorry, it didn’t work’ made her move to other doctors.

Helen was doing IVF from the age of 28. She has always been told her eggs were of “really good quality.” They were fertilizing and defrosting fine. Nobody could figure out why the woman couldn’t get pregnant, time after time.

“You’re told ’sorry it didn’t work,’” recalls Helen. “We’d take a couple of weeks, and you just had to get back on your feet again. You’ve got to stay positive, but it’s like hell while you’re waiting.” So she decided to move to another clinic.

Another decade of trying ended up with even more grief and despair.

She was already in her early 40s when the other doctor took some tests and discovered that Helen had a severely tilted womb, which had impacted the embryo transfers.

Since then, she fell pregnant and suffered three heartbreaking miscarriages. She even tried donor eggs, but also without any success. It was grief, and felt like she had lost her chance to start a family.

It was Helen’s mother who convinced her to give it all another try.

After Helen’s dad passed away from cancer at 81, her mom insisted their daughter would give it one last go. She already underwent 21 rounds of treatment and countless IVF, spending almost £100,000 (more than $128,000). Yet, it was all far from ending.

Helen’s marriage broke down, but she met another partner, with whom she moved back to Cyprus in 2019. They found a fertility clinic that accepted women in their mid-50s, but Helen was still unsure of putting herself through so much stress again.

But in the end all the time and effort were worth the result.

And finally, all the efforts seemed to pay off. “I remember that day we opened the email that said the numbers were in their thousands, meaning I was pregnant,” shared Helen. “We started crying with joy.” Her mom was terrified it was another failure, but at 53 years old, she finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

Of course, after 25 years of trying, Helen couldn’t hold her emotions, cradling her baby in her arms. “I started crying uncontrollably the moment I brought her home from the hospital,” she said. “All the 25 years of grief escaped from me — it had all disappeared the moment I met my Daisy Grace.”

The pregnancy journey may be magical or may become a real struggle. However, as with many other women’s stories, this one reminds us that anything is possible in this life if we keep believing in our dreams and give it every effort we can.