How do you celebrate the birth of a Rainbow?
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With a unicorn party, of course!
Maggie Victoria Rainbow, born on December 1 in 2016, is the first In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) baby conceived at TasIVF in Launceston.
Her special day was marked on Saturday with unicorn-themed party.
However, it took a team to help get Maggie to her first birthday.
Her parents Penelope and Michael Rainbow had been trying for close to 10 months before they turned to IVF.
They were both on the “wrong side of 30” when they started, Mrs Rainbow said.
“We got a referral to see Bill at TasIVF.”
TasIVF’s Launceston clinic offers fertility assessments, ovulation induction, intrauterine insemination, simplified IVF as well as other treatments.
“When you see him, you just feel relief because he’s really confident he can get you a baby,” Mrs Rainbow said.
“It was a much easier process than I thought it was going to be.”
The treatment was a low stimulation cycle, which involved fewer hormones and eggs.
“We got three eggs and of those two were fertilised. One of those was Maggie and the other one is on ice,” Mrs Rainbow said.
“We got really lucky first go.”
Finding out they had a baby on the way was “really exciting”.
“It was probably a bit of shock to start with because it was our first cycle. You hear about women having to go through so many cycles. I just didn’t think that we would be that lucky,” she said.
“We’ll definitely be back for another one.”
They were delighted to have Maggie in their lives.
“Life is busy, full-on, but she’s gorgeous. We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mrs Rainbow said.
Maggie is an active baby, who likes cheese and doesn’t like to sit still.
Mrs Rainbow’s advice to anyone trying to have a baby naturally was if they had been trying for a long time, get a referral earlier rather than later so they had IVF as an option.
“And don’t give up.”
The Rainbows wanted to thank the staff at TasIVF for their support in helping them have their special baby.
- Clarification: The article previously state Maggie was the first IVF baby conceived in Launceston when Sydney IVF ran an operational IVF clinic in Launceston in the 1990s until 2011.