For many couples, falling pregnant can be simple, but for one couple the desire to have a child turned into an emotional rollercoaster.

Hitchin resident Vicki Hibbert spoke to the Comet ahead of the first National Infertility Awareness Week (Oct 28 - Nov 3) to highlight the emotional and physical pain of infertility.

For Vicki, the yearning for a baby came as a surprise. In her 20s, having a baby was the last thing on her mind. She enjoyed exciting holidays, socialising and her independence, and viewed motherhood as an “old fashioned” idea.

But then, when Vicki turned 30, something changed. Starting with one of her best friends, several friends and relatives became pregnant. She said she felt the biological clock start to tick.

The 38-year-old events organiser recalls being bowled over by the need to have a child, which manifested itself as a physical pain.

“I had an unexpected, overwhelming, uncontrollable longing to have a baby. I felt sick and I was shaking. Suddenly having a baby became the most urgent thing. I was ready,” she said.

It took a year to convince her partner that she was not just going through a phase, and that she genuinely wanted to have children. The couple thought they would get pregnant easily, but after more than a year trying, nothing had happened.

“I love my job but my work suffered because I couldn’t think about anything else other than having a baby,” said Vicki. “I would think about it when I woke up, on the drive to work in the morning, eating my lunch, sitting in meetings, waiting for someone to pick up the phone, driving home in the evening, lying in bed at night.

“After two-and-a-half years of trying, sex had become less about spontaneity and enjoyment and purely and solely about making a baby. Our relationship started to suffer. We still loved each other very much but it was a very difficult time.”

After a further six months with no success, Vicki and her husband were referred for fertility testing.

The tests revealed no defined cause for their infertility. Their consultant referred the couple for IVF treatment, and Vicki chose Bourn Hall in Cambridge.

“Bourn Hall is a beautiful old house surrounded by green fields and has an air of calm about it. The moment you walk in you feel welcomed and embraced. I have never felt so pleased to be anywhere in my life,” added Vicki.

She took fertility drugs to regulate her cycle before her eggs were collected to be fertilised with her husband’s sperm. Of the five eggs removed from Vicki’s ovaries, only two were successfully fertilised. The next day, when it came to transferring them to Vicki’s womb, only one embryo had continued to divide and was viable.

Vicki had to wait two weeks until she could take a pregnancy test, which she described as the “longest wait I’ve ever experienced”. The couple got the news they had been waiting more than three years for – Vicki was pregnant.

On April 12, 2011, baby Rose Elizabeth was born.

Vicki said: “Rose is now two years old and a little monkey. She’s very clumsy and doesn’t stop talking. She looks like me and has her dad’s feet.

“She has beautiful curly blonde hair and big blue eyes. She is smart and feisty and loving and funny and I can’t imagine life without her.”