Some time ago we brought you the emotional story of Gemma Hearne in our In Her Own Words series. Gemma penned an incredibly poignant blog post about her infertility and the effects it had on her life.
And the time, Gemma wrote:
“Infertility, unfortunately, is part of my life at present and something I deal with on a daily basis. For the most part, I am strong and capable of doing so. It truly is something; well at least for me, something that has two sides. I enjoy my life with my husband and I know we are a family, whether we conceive or not.
“However I also feel like I am failing at a very basic role of womanhood. The piece was really easy to write because I wrote completely from the heart.”
Now it gives us great happiness to be able to share the news that Gemma is pregnant and due in June 2016.
Sharing an image of her baby scan with us, Gemma writes:
”Last August, while on holiday, I had a lot of time to reflect on our difficulty to conceive but also on the many positives of my life with Ian, my husband. Upon returning, I sat down one wet Wednesday evening planning to write about our fertility struggle but also how I was never going to allow it to define me and our marriage. I understood it was part of my story but I was not going to be consumed by it. Ian and I have a great life anyway, even without children and I was determined that that would not change. However, when I started writing something very different emerged, something very strong moved inside of me. I was even surprised that I felt that way. As soon as I was finished, with tears rolling down my cheeks, I clicked on ‘Post’ and thought no more about it. I had a beautiful sense of relief and serenity.
My friend, Jax, informed me days later that she had contacted Her.ie and they were interested in publishing my piece. So that is what happened. I got so many responses from people around the world, empathising with me and sharing their own journeys. I was blown away and felt a connection with a different kind of community, one which I had no contact with or support from before. People understood me and it felt nice.
In my piece, I wrote about “36 unwanted periods” and now I am so honoured to announce it stopped at that. On Tuesday 6th October, 8 days after my period was due, I got my positive pregnancy test. Ian and I are due to meet our little one on June 4th and to say we are excited is an understatement. I don’t know what happened. Was it the relief of writing down how I was feeling but something shifted. Now we are continuing our journey together but taking a much different path than I thought was ahead of us. Thank you so much to all the Her.ie readers for reading, sharing and responding to my story, you truly showed your support.”
We wish Gemma all the best in the coming weeks!
Check out the original piece below:
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We were introduced to Gemma Hearne when a reader sent us this blog post. The reader heard our recent post by Áine Cronin telling us the story of her accidental pregnancy.
Gemma’s story is the polar opposite of Áines.
Gemma penned this post “The Two Sides of My Story” to reflect on her inability to conceive a child. It’s a beautiful, honest and thought provoking story and one that isn’t told often enough.
Gemma says
“I don’t have a Facebook account, so for me my blog is my own space on the internet where people can leaves me comments, messages, as well as looking at what interests me and what I have been cooking, wearing, using and visiting.
I also love taking photos and being creative. It is sometimes a week or so between posts, when I am really busy with life, and it’s that email I receive from someone, asking me advice about a beauty product or telling me their story that truly motivates me to keep posting. I love talking to others – making that connection”.
She says writing this piece was easier than others because it was from the heart.
“This post that I have written is an extremely personal piece. It is not the kind of post that represents my blog but it is part of my story and I wanted to share it with my followers. Infertility, unfortunately, is part of my life at present and something I deal with on a daily basis. For the most part, I am strong and capable of doing so. It truly is something; well at least for me, something that has two sides. I enjoy my life with my husband and I know we are a family, whether we conceive or not.
However I also feel like I am failing at a very basic role of womanhood. The piece was really easy to write because I wrote completely from the heart. I didn’t read over it because it wasn’t a piece of writing, it was my story. For me and for thousands of people out there, it was beneficial. I have had so much positive feedback and personal stories from women and men from all over the world. I have been seriously overwhelmed by everyone’s response and I thank all for sharing his or her thoughts and experiences”.
You can follow her blog HERE.
