The Support we didn’t know we needed

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The first couple of weeks of January can be challenging in the best of years. The cold weather, short days and seemingly infinite expanse of the new year ahead can really impact our mental and emotional wellbeing. This year that’s perhaps more true than ever. Having navigated a 2020 which presented challenges unlike most of us had ever experienced, the optimism surrounding 2021 was short lived for many; another national lock-down and all the unknowns that come with that.

For those pursuing fertility treatment there’s the added strain of physical and financial worries. A huge amount of unhelpful “what-ifs” added to what can already be a daunting journey. In recognition of that fact, and as part of our commitment to ensuring our patients’ physical and emotional wellbeing, the Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health have expanded our counselling offering to ensure all of our patients receive as much counselling support as they require throughout their treatment, completely free of charge.

Why?

Taking a holistic approach to treatment has always been part of what we do at CRGH. Ensuring our patients are happy, comfortable and feel safe means that all of our medical and clinical expertise have the best chance of being as effective as possible. We know from feedback that patients value being treated as individuals and love the fact our staff take genuine, personal interest in their success.

Counselling is a key part of ensuring that patients have the opportunity to discuss their concerns in a setting other than the consultations they will have had with our Doctors and nurses. For some patients, such as those using donated eggs or sperm, the HFEA requires a mandatory “implications counselling” session is undertaken, where the specially qualified counsellor will explore the impacts, both legal and emotional, of raising a child conceived through a donor or surrogate.

In the Covid-19 pandemic, there are so many additional sacrifices which our patients have had to make. With many additional worries they have to overcome, that it felt natural to dramatically expand our support offering. We know that so many of our patients have had contact with their usual support group of friends and family significantly reduced. To comply with government guidelines, we’ve had to ask patients to attend the clinic on their own when they may have otherwise come with a partner or friend. These things combined with the general stress and uncertainty that Covid-19 has caused should be unpacked, discussed and understood; our professional counsellors are on hand to do exactly that.

A recent CRGH patient explained it like this;

“I didn’t understand why we needed to speak with the counsellor initially.  Very early on in our first counselling session though, our counsellor encouraged us to think about aspects we hadn’t properly considered. We quickly realised that we’d been carrying all this unnecessary stress and worry. Just going through the treatment process without giving ourselves time to process the steps and actually enjoy the process in some way. Even though it’s a medical process, it’s a very special one too; you’re creating a baby. Our counsellor helped us realise that. From then on our mindset changed, and we kept speaking with the counsellor up until our treatment was successful. I’m not sure how we would have coped without it. It’s the support we didn’t know we needed.”

A Fertility patient from CRGH

CRGH are incredibly proud to be able to offer this support to our patients. With our counsellors help we’re determined to make many more healthy babies, and happy families in 2021.

Guest Blog written by Craig Paton, from CRGH.