A Long Journey To Being A Mum

Jeannie Saggs, 49, and her husband, Rob, had longed for children ever since they met

The one thing Jeannie Saggs had always hoped for was to become a mum.

And after meeting Rob, now 48, when she was in her 20s, that feeling became stronger than ever.

‘Rob and I started trying for a baby in 1998, four years after we’d married,’ Jeannie says.

But by 2001, they still hadn’t conceived – and after tests, a fertility specialist confirmed that it was highly unlikely that Rob and Jeannie would be able to have a baby naturally.

‘I remember feeling numb with shock when the consultant told us the news,’ Jeannie says.

By 2004, the couple had been referred for two rounds of IVF on the NHS.

‘Our first attempt failed, and our second ended in a devastating ectopic pregnancy, which resulted in emergency surgery to remove one of my fallopian tubes,’ Jeannie says.

‘Coming round from surgery, the grief hit me in waves. I was thankful to be alive, but I felt my chance of becoming a mother slipping further out of my reach.’

After taking some time to recover, Jeannie and Rob decided to look into adoption, both trying their best to keep an open mind as they went along to an information evening hosted by their local council.

‘But the pain of losing our own baby was too raw. We weren’t ready,’ Jeannie says.

‘Instead, we focused on our careers – both working as church ministers in Hull– before being given the chance to relocate to Essex in 2010.’

It was a couple of years later, in summer 2012, that a guest speaker stood up in church one morning to talk about their own experience of adopting a child.

Rob wasn’t there that day, but as Jeannie listened to the woman’s story, she had a moment of realisation.