A couple who almost gave up hope of ever having a baby claim a £100 DIY fertility kit gave them the ‘miracle’ daughter they’d been longing for.
Nursery worker Kerry Carr, 29, and her husband Paul, 38, had tried for two-and-a-half years to conceive naturally.
Despite already having a son together, six-year-old Riley, Mrs Carr, from Runcorn, Cheshire, found it difficult to fall pregnant a second time.
Diagnosed with ‘unexplained infertility’ – where there is no obvious cause – it looked like the only option for the couple at this stage was artificial insemination.
IVF on the NHS was not an option for the couple as they already had a child together – and private treatment can cost in the region of £5,000.
But in the end, there was no need for expensive clinics and treatments.
A friend suggested they try The Stork Home Conception Device, a DIY fertility kit. While sceptical at first, the couple decided to give it a go.
To their amazement, Mrs Carr got pregnant straight away – after the first and only time they used the device. Their daughter, Keira May, was born in August this year.
‘Getting The Stork was the best £100 we’ve ever spent,’ Mr Carr told MailOnline.
‘I would recommend it to anyone who is trying for a baby, where there’s no obvious medical problem, before considering artificial insemination.
‘It’s certainly a lot cheaper than other options available.’
Nursery worker Kerry Carr, 29, and her husband Paul, 38, had almost given up hope of conceiving naturally after two-and-a-half years of trying – until they had Keira May
Mr Carr admits when he first saw a picture of the device, he was sceptical. ‘I looked at it and thought – ‘what the hell is that!’
‘But, when I started reading about it, I thought “this is exactly what we’ll be spending £1,000 (on artificial insemination) in a clinic”.
‘The Stork costs £100 and you can do it in the privacy of your own home. Yet, they both do the same thing.’
Latest figures show that one in seven couples in the UK struggle to conceive.
But, for many couples affected by infertility, doctors only ever talk about IUI (artificial insemination) and IVF.
While in theory it’s possible to get IUI and IVF treatments on the NHS, in reality, it’s a postcode lottery with strict criteria.
Not eligible for funding
And in this case, because Mrs Carr had already conceived before, the couple weren’t eligible for NHS IVF funding.
The couple first met 14 years ago. Mr Carr also has a daughter, Megan, now 17, from a previous relationship.
‘The first-time round, it took 12 months before Kerry got pregnant with Riley,’ Mr Carr told MailOnline.
Despite already having a son together, six-year-old Riley, Mrs Carr, from Runcorn, Cheshire, had not become pregnant again. She was diagnosed with ‘unexplained infertility’
The couple first met 14 years ago. Mr Carr already had a daughter, Megan, now 17, from a previous relationship (pictured with six-year-old Riley and Keira May, now four months)
‘We weren’t worried about it. Kerry had stopped taking the Pill.
‘So, when she didn’t get pregnant to begin with, we just put it down to the fact that her body needed time to rebalance.
‘When she did eventually conceive, the pregnancy was fine.’
So, when they decided to try for another baby, just after they got married four years ago, it didn’t cross their minds there might be a problem.
‘But when it got to 18 months and still nothing, we started to get worried there might be something wrong,’ says Mr Carr.
‘We bought so many ovulation kits to monitor her fertile days. But, constantly thinking about the best time to have intercourse put stress on our relationship.
‘Instead of feeling spontaneous and relaxed, each time we made love we kept hoping it would lead to pregnancy.’
Massive period worries
And for Mrs Carr, every month she didn’t get pregnant was heartbreaking.
‘It was a massive worry whenever my period came,’ she says.
‘Each time I felt as if I’d lost another chance to have a baby. For a day or two, I would get terribly upset and cry.
‘I also found it very hard when people used to say “not pregnant yet?” Working in a nursery didn’t help either, as there was always a lot of talk about babies and pregnancies.
A friend suggested they try The Stork Home Conception Device, a DIY fertility kit. While sceptical at first, the couple decided to give it a go (pictured with Megan and Riley)
‘Paul was very supportive and did his best to try and console me. But, the longer this went on the more disappointed we both felt.’
After nearly two years of trying, in February 2016, the couple went to see their GP and had tests to check there were no underlying problems.
But all the results came back fine. They were then referred to the Liverpool Women’s Hospital for further tests. Again, nothing showed up.
This is when the consultant diagnosed them with ‘unexplained fertility’, where no cause can be identified.
Told to carry on trying
To their frustration, they were told to go away and ‘carry on trying’.
‘In some ways we were hoping something that was fixable would show up in the tests,’ says Mr Carr.
‘But, we walked out in the same position as we were two years before.’
It was at this point they started thinking about artificial insemination – but were told there would be a year-long wait on the NHS.
Not wanting to wait that long, they found a private clinic – and vowed if Mrs Carr still wasn’t pregnant by January 2017 they’d go ahead with the procedure.
It was shortly afterwards, that one of her friends mentioned The Stork.
IVF on the NHS was not an option for the couple as they already had a child together – and they were told having the insemination treatment privately would cost £1,000
‘We thought about it and decided to take a gamble,’ says Mr Carr. ‘If it didn’t work out we’d only have lost £100.
‘If it did work, we’d have saved ourselves around £900. Although, you can’t really put a price on having a baby.’
Mrs Carr ordered the device from the Superdrug website.
‘We tried it on a Sunday night, the 13th of November, says Mr Carr. ‘Kerry had just come back from a spa weekend and I’d been out the night before with the lads at a boxing match.
‘We were going to leave it until the next day, but Kerry’s ovulation kit showed peak fertility. We wanted to maximise our chance as much as possible.
‘A bit fiddly’
He added: ‘The Stork looks a bit fiddly but it’s actually very easy to use.
‘Basically, it’s a condom-like sheath that the man wears during intercourse. At the end of the ‘condom’ is a cap that collects the semen.
‘Afterwards, you roll the sheath down and remove the cap – and the woman puts it inside her to maximise the number of sperm swimming up the cervix.’
Mrs Carr also found the device very user friendly.
‘You put the cap (with the collected semen) into a holder at the top of a tampon-like applicator and insert it close to the cervix,’ she explains.
For Mrs Carr every month she didn’t get pregnant was heartbreaking. ‘It was a massive worry whenever my period came,’ she says
Mr Carr admits when he first saw a picture of the device, he was sceptical. ‘I looked at it and thought – ‘what the hell is that!’
‘You leave the cap in place for 4 – 6 hours, but you can’t feel it at all. I’d say you could almost forget it’s there.
‘But obviously I didn’t forget, because I wanted it to work so much.’
Knowing she was pregnant
Mrs Carr says she knew she was pregnant almost immediately.
‘I can’t explain it. It was a feeling I got – I just felt different. I didn’t tell Paul, because I didn’t want to get his hopes up. I did a pregnancy test with him two weeks later.
‘It was an amazing moment when the test showed I was pregnant. We were both ecstatic.
‘We wanted to tell everyone straight away, but obviously we didn’t. It was too early and anything could happen.’
The pregnancy wasn’t easy. ‘I started spotting quite early on,’ says Mrs Carr.
‘I know this can be quite common, but having tried so hard to get pregnant, I went into a complete panic when I saw blood.
I also had really bad morning sickness and heartburn – but it was all worth it.’
Keira’s birth
Keira was born by water birth at The Countess of Chester Hospital on August 4th 2017.
‘When she finally arrived, we were both so happy,’ says Mr Carr.
‘It was like a miracle. I just wanted to cry with joy. She was so tiny, beautiful and perfect. It feels like our family is complete now.’
‘One of the first things I did when I found out I was pregnant was to book an appointment with my GP,’ says Mrs Carr.
‘I wanted to tell her how The Stork had worked for us so that she can share this information with other couples who are experiencing problems with fertility.
‘People should be aware of their options. I also told all the midwives as it will be very handy for them to know what else is out there.’
The other options
Dr Hood agrees that couples need to be aware of other options out there.
‘In my opinion too, many couples are considering artificial insemination (IUI) and IVF before exploring simpler and far less invasive therapies, which address poor sperm counts or motility (the movement of sperm).
‘In clinical trials, cervical cap insemination has around a 20 per cent success rate, comparable to IUI success rates of 16 – 21 per cent.
‘It can be performed in a home setting, which is far less stressful than attending a hospital or fertility clinic.
‘This is important, because we know that women who are stressed are less likely to conceive.’
For more information – www.thestorkconception.co.uk