Essex mums’ Christmas sofa-selfie is socially distanced this year!

Three colleagues from Essex who became life-long friends after sharing the heartache of infertility followed by the joy of successful fertility treatment at Bourn Hall Clinic have a very special Christmas tradition. For the last five years Vicki, Carly and Nikki have taken it in turns to host a festive get-together culminating in an annual group ‘sofa selfie’ with their children. This year however, in order to be fully Covid-compliant, they have had to improvise: the get-together will be hosted on Zoom and each family will be staying at home and taking their own individual sofa selfie.

“It is certainly a strange end to the year,” says Vicki, who lives in Braintree. “At one point we thought we might be able to get together outside in a park and take a photo on some park benches but then my five-year-old son William had to self-isolate so that was the end of that!”

Vicki had IVF at Bourn Hall after trying to get pregnant for three years with no success. Whilst undergoing treatment she discovered that, coincidentally, two of her colleagues at the same branch of the Halifax bank where she worked were also having fertility issues. She formed a close bond with Carly and Nikki who both went on to have treatment at Bourn Hall.

“Struggling to become a mum is heartbreaking,” says Vicki. “It is really difficult when it seems as though everyone around you is getting pregnant. It was fantastic for myself, Carly and Nikki to have each other for support and share the same experience, it brought us closer together.”

Successful treatment at Bourn Hall gave all three women a baby son – Vicki gave birth to William, whilst Carly welcomed Rhys and Nikki had Nathan. Vicki then had a big surprise a few months after William was born when, miraculously after having tried to conceive for so long, she fell pregnant naturally and had daughter Evelyn four years ago.

The trio had another surprise addition this year when Carly, who became pregnant naturally, welcomed a second son Sully just before lockdown.

Carly, from Braintree, says: “It would have been really lovely to end the year with Sully joining everyone on the sofa for the first time, but it wasn’t to be.”

Nikki, who lives in Witham, is also disappointed that she and son Nathan will miss seeing their friends in person this year but is looking forward to resuming the tradition in 2021. “We have been doing this since 2015 and our annual photo is a really lovely record of our friendship and our children,” she says. “The bond which we have because of our shared experience of infertility is so precious and we are all indebted to Bourn Hall for helping us.”

Back to top