After suffering 3 miscarriages we had various tests done which came back to show my husband had a balanced chromosomal translocation. We had a counselling session in a Dublin hospital where we were told we could keep trying naturally and suffer numerous miscarriages – they gave us a 1 in 4chance of not miscarrying, if we didn’t miscarry there was a 1% chance our baby would be born with a severe birth defect and would die when born or we could think about having PGD (Preimplanation Genetic Diagnosis), but that we would have to travel to the UK as it was not done in Ireland. We decided to try the PGD in London where our first attempt was successful and I gave birth to our beautiful daughter in 2008.
However, 18mths later we decided to give the PGD another go but to our bitter disappointment we were unsuccessful. After 4 more attempts between fresh and frozen cycles we were no closer to getting pregnant. We had a consultation with a doctor in London and he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working for us as the quality of the embryos were as good if not better than when we were successful back in 2007.
As a result of our first miscarriages I ended up having to have 3 D&Cs, taking several courses of strong antibiotics and catching MRSA, since that I starting suffering from sinus problems and generally feeling tired and run down. My tongue was swollen and coated, I had shown it in to my dentist and doctor but they didn’t seem to worry about it. However, we were getting frustrated that things were not going our way and I was constantly doing research on the internet when I came across Siobhan Kehoe’s name and the first thing that caught my eye in her article was that “Acupuncture also relies on the Tongue and Pulse diagnosis”.
I immediately called Siobhan and explained our situation, she said that she would need to see the both of us and we could take it from there! So in May 2011 we made the long journey to Enniscorthy with the hope that this could be the answer to our dream. After a long and thorough consultation Siobhan asked to have a look at my tongue and basically said she felt my body would have difficulty sustaining a pregnancy as she felt I was not healthy. She said that we should take 6 months off trying to conceive, change our diet, take some Chinese herbs and that she could see no reason why we could not conceive naturally if our bodies were healthy enough, but that the decision was totally up to us as to where to go from there. She also advised us to be guided by the medical advice we had received. I had just finished a course of antibiotics and steroids for my sinuses before that visit and Siobhan told me that I had “spleen qi deficiency” a dampness in my body from all the antibiotics, dairy products and processed foods etc… and that’s what was causing the sinus problems etc… We decided to give it a try and immediately changed our diet and started taking the Chinese herbs that Siobhan gave us.
Seven months later and on the first month of trying we found out that we were expecting our second child with the help of Siobhan and WITHOUT the help of PGD and we were so excited and nervous. In August 2012 I gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby boy weighing 10lb 2oz!! We would like to thank Siobhan for all the advice she gave us, we found her to be very helpful, honest and to the point, even though she is very busy she took the time to ring me numerous times to see if everything was going OK, I have recommended her to friends and would have no problem recommending her as she is excellent at what she does.
Elizabeth, Letrim
