Beautiful, IRL fertility success stories, with Baby Quest Foundation
We recently hosted an Instagram Live with Pamela Hirsch, founder of the Baby Quest Foundation. Many years ago, Pamela launched this non-profit to help people in the USA access grants for fertility treatments they otherwise couldn’t afford. Her motivation was deeply personal, having watched her own daughter go through failed IVF cycles, miscarriages, and surrogacy.
Since then, Baby Quest has helped countless families, not just by providing financial support, but by making parenthood possible when it otherwise wouldn’t have been. You can apply for the next grant below.
Recently, while waiting at a street corner for the light to change, Pamela found herself next to a visibly pregnant young woman. They exchanged smiles, but Pamela kept quiet.
What she really wanted to ask was, “Did you get pregnant naturally?”
It might sound like a strange question, but when you have four granddaughters – one via IVF, two carried by surrogates, and one a very unexpected and welcome surprise – and you’ve built a charity for those battling infertility, you can forget that for many, pregnancy happens without the emotional and financial toll.
Baby Quest Foundation was “born” out of Pamela’s younger daughter’s long and difficult journey to conceive. Understanding the expense, frustration, and heartbreak infertility brings sparked her passion for creating a non-profit to help those for whom finances are yet another obstacle – on top of the medical challenges – to building a family.
Today, there are 126 Baby Quest grant recipients, each with a unique journey. They represent a wide range of backgrounds, diverse in ethnicity, sexual orientation, geography, and the medical issues preventing conception.
Here are just a few of their stories.
Simone & Antonio
Infertility was never on our radar. For the first year after I stopped birth control, my cycles were all over the place. Within six months we were worried enough to see a fertility specialist.
A year later, my cycles had finally started to settle, but that’s when we learned Antonio had a low sperm count. We were told our best chance of conceiving would be through sperm extraction surgery (micro-TESE) alongside IVF. Both procedures came with a huge price tag and, with no insurance coverage, it felt like our dream of starting a family had been pushed back by years.
Male factor infertility felt even more isolating than I could have imagined. We didn’t share it with anyone close to us, and even between ourselves, talking about our fears and heartbreak was hard.
Through our research, we discovered the Baby Quest Foundation. When we learned we’d been selected as December 2017 recipients, it felt like a breath of fresh air, and a renewed sense of hope that also made us realise how much we’d been holding back from each other.
In May 2018, after Antonio underwent a four-hour procedure, doctors told us they had been unable to find any sperm. The news was devastating, but we had spent months preparing ourselves for this possibility. Our focus shifted to what mattered most: that he would be there for every stage of pregnancy and from the very first moments at birth – whenever our baby was ready to meet us.
In February 2019, we welcomed not one but two incredible girls into our lives. Antonio was there for every prenatal appointment and now cares for our daughters with the devotion of any loving father.
I can never fully understand what it feels like to not share DNA with my children, but I will always treasure the fact that my husband has, in just a few months, already been more present in their lives than any blood male relative I have ever known.
Working through male infertility meant redefining what fatherhood truly is. We once assumed that shared DNA was the most natural and expected part of being a dad. But fatherhood is so much more – it’s made up of responsibilities and commitments that reach far beyond genetics, each one rooted in choice. Without Antonio’s choice to show up and embrace fatherhood so completely, so much would be missing from what we now understand to be the most essential parts of being a father.
Mabel and David
In September 2012, at just 35 years old, I was diagnosed with “early ovarian failure.” After countless tests, I was overjoyed to become pregnant with our one-in-a-million baby, but we lost her at 12 weeks, and our hearts were broken.
With my low numbers, IVF with an egg donor was our only option. Accepting that was incredibly hard, and I wrestled with it for years. Therapy with a counsellor who specialised in fertility struggles helped me begin to process everything.
When I was finally ready to explore donors, I discovered Baby Quest and applied. I’ll never forget sitting with our therapist when the email arrived telling us we were finalists. It felt like the push we needed to jump in with both feet. Then, in May 2016, we were chosen as grant recipients. It was an incredible moment of hope.
The donor selection process was daunting, but eventually we had nine beautiful embryos frozen. Even then, the path wasn’t straightforward. I needed surgery before our transfer could go ahead, another hurdle to face. But at last, we were able to transfer two of our precious “embabies.”
The wait that followed was agonising. And then came the most joyful news: I was pregnant. At our first ultrasound, we found out both babies had settled in. We were overwhelmed with gratitude and joy.
Now the hard part was over, right? My doctor was amazing at preparing me for what to expect with a multiple pregnancy at my age. The first trimester was surprisingly smooth – apart from wanting to sleep and eat constantly, I felt fine. At 20 weeks, our scans looked perfect and everything was on track. But just days later, my babies decided they wanted an early arrival.
We spent two terrifying weeks in the hospital, with full bedrest, medications, constant monitoring, and a cerclage. When I was finally able to go home, I remained on strict bedrest for the rest of my pregnancy – definitely not how I had pictured it.
Through it all, my husband and mom were incredible, supporting me every step of the way. At 28 weeks, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but with careful management, we kept it under control. We made it to 29 weeks and 5 days at home before the babies grew impatient again. After a few days of trying to hold them off, they arrived via C-section at 30 weeks and 1 day.
Both boys came out screaming, and it was a sound more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. They spent 58 long days in the NICU, and then, finally, we came home as a family of four.
Trying to conceive and grow our family was not the easiest journey, but I wouldn’t change a thing. We now have our two beautiful boys, and I truly believe they are the babies we were always meant to have. I am forever grateful for the path we took, and for everyone who was a part of it.
Lyndsey and Patrick
Simply put, I want to be a mom, and my husband wants to be a dad. I’ve always dreamed of motherhood, and that desire has only grown stronger over time. What I never imagined was that, at thirty years old, I would be struggling to conceive. Shortly after our wedding, my husband and I were faced with infertility, and the physical, financial, and emotional stress that comes with it.
For the past ten years, I’ve worked as a Registered Nurse, with my primary focus on providing exceptional care to every patient – treating each one as if they were a member of my own family. My husband, Patrick, was diagnosed with type one diabetes at the age of ten, but that has never slowed him down. Alongside his career in finance, Patrick also coaches youth hockey and volunteers with juvenile diabetes patients.
People often say the first year of marriage is the hardest. Add in fertility challenges for two individuals who have always dreamed of becoming parents, and it creates yet another layer of unexpected stress.
We’ve learned to take things one day at a time, and in doing so, we feel this unplanned struggle has ultimately made us an even stronger couple. Neither of us could have made it through the highs and lows of our infertility journey without the deep love we share for each other.
With all of this love and life experience behind us, we were completely overjoyed to become Baby Quest grant recipients, and will soon undergo IVF using an egg donor.
All about Baby Quest
These stories are typical of the many who struggle with infertility, whether it be recurrent pregnancy loss, male factor infertility, diminished ovarian reserve, or – perhaps the most frustrating – unexplained infertility. 1 in 6 couples across the globe are affected by infertility, and it’s a club in which no one wants membership.
Baby Quest cannot promise our recipients a child. We can only grant the access to proceed with treatment – the financial support necessary to pay the clinic, pharmacy, genetic company, egg donor company, surrogacy agency, or whatever component it takes to conceive a baby.
I will never know if that pregnant woman on the street corner conceived naturally or not. I just know that, unfortunately, for so many it takes more than the “natural way” – and that’s what we’re here for.
Baby Quest Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit. Since 2012, the charity has awarded grants totalling $3.6 million. There are now 200+ Baby Quest babies, and 250+ grants awarded. Applicants must be permanent residents of the United States.
For complete information, and the next round of funding, check in with Baby Quest Foundation today.
And for more fertility grants, connect with the IVF Authority.
