💛 Dena's Story

 My journey began in 2017 when we started to try to expand our family. Despite being 39 at the time, I naively thought this would come easily as I had conceived spontaneously 2 years prior. When we underwent further testing, it was revealed that I had DOR and Ashermans that resulted from the emergency C-section that had saved both my life and my daughters' life. We jumped directly into multiple surgeries followed by fertility treatments. All the while this process began to consume me and I began to lose myself and lose trust in my own intuition regarding my body and my health. After a miscarriage in the fall of 2019, I found myself in a dark place physically and emotionally, and this was when I realized I needed to invest in more than just the physical treatments for fertility, I needed to also heal my mind and spirit and I joined Fertile Hope in January 2020.

While my path after joining Fertile Hope was not a straight shot to success, I feel like I had the community and support to navigate the detours with more grace. With the support of the community, I gained the courage to finally switch fertility clinics, seek an expert opinion (and surgeries) to address the Ashermans and to advocate for myself. I began to trust my intuition, trust my body, and return to practices that nourished my soul and well-being. Despite having experienced some very dark moments on this path, I am truly grateful for this journey as I am a better friend, physician, spouse, and mother for having experienced it.

Here are a couple of the quotes that were on my vision board:

"The moment you're ready to quit is usually the moment right before the miracle happens- Don't Give Up!"

"Hope propels my positive thoughts and actions. Each day, the stars are aligning for my future."

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While I had the support of the Ignite community, I always wondered how my husband was processing this journey. While I think this has overall strengthened our relationship, at times it certainly challenged it. He recently shared a poem he had written (clearly he thought I was doing some strange things at times, and as a disclaimer this was not actually a recipe for a smoothie):

SECOND BABY FEVER
by Piotr Florczyk

Seaweed, raw
milk, three eggs,
almonds, chia seeds,
kale, five olives and one
jumbo
avocado—

blend it all together
every day,
before the ultrasound
visit and the next one and the one
after that.
Plucking petals

works
no more, unless
you’re a romantic.
Which we’re not.
We’re not.
Not.

 

💫 In honor of NIAW

I want to make support more accessible this week.

For a limited time, I’m offering:

50% OFF ANY Fertile Hope membership forever
(including the already discounted 6-month NURTURE plan)

Use code: NIAW2026 at checkout

Join Now