Get It - Dec 2012

Get Parenting
The
greatest
gift
of all
With an infectious smile and bouts of baby
jargon echoing through the hallway, oneyear-old
Sven Chetty gleefully makes his
way to the lounge.
Our conversation stops as we are
mesmerised by a miracle toddler, who
just one year ago beat all odds for survival
in the neo-natal unit of Netcare’s The Bay
Hospital.
His mum Elaine (32) holds him close to
her bosom as she recollects an arduous
journey of almost 11 years to conceive.
‘There was never a reason why we
couldn’t have a baby, so we never gave
up,’ says Elaine as she glances at husband
Silven (33) before opening a painful
chapter.
12 Get It Zululand December 12
The Richards Bay high school sweethearts
were inseparable as teens and surprised
many when they decided to tie the knot at
19 and 20 respectively.
In their second year of marriage, the
couple started planning a family and
two years later, were referred to a fertility
specialist.
‘We tried everything from laparoscopies
to several rounds of intrauterine
insemination, which were not covered by
medical aid.’
IVF
The couple then turned to the Care Clinic
in Durban in 2005 where they attempted
in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), a procedure
unspoken of within Indian circles.
‘There is a 45% success rate with IVF. It
would take me about six months to recover
after an unsuccessful attempt and then I
would try again. I couldn’t stop. I could see
the end result.’
And it was this determination to have a
baby and have time at their disposal to visit
out-of-town specialists, which drove Elaine
to move from being a litigation secretary
to the more flexible hours of a real estate
agent. This resulted in her eventually
purchasing Seeff Property in Richards Bay.
The couple then visited the MedFem
Fertility Clinic in Sandton in 2009 to pursue
the IVF option once more.
‘During this time, we toyed with different
ideas, including adoption. But there was a
lot of red tape with this option.’
In 2010 Elaine fell pregnant with twins
but after 10 weeks she was given the
painful news that her babies had ‘stopped
growing’.
‘I was absolutely devastated, but I said to
Silven – ‘next year this time, we are going to
have a baby’. This is what kept me going.’
Surrogacy
Elaine’s inability to carry to full-term
prompted them to consider surrogacy –
an option suggested by her sister-in-law
nearly three years ago.
Another IVF attempt saw a fertilised egg
being implanted into her sister-in-law
yielding positive results as she was soon
pregnant with twins.
Losing one of the babies in the first
trimester, baby Sven was eventually
delivered through an emergency
caesarean section after 30 weeks.
‘At first we were pushed aside in the
hospital. Nobody understood why there
needed to be four people in the delivery
room.
‘I sang throughout the delivery and
recovery process ‘How great is our God’.
Sven could not breathe when he first came
out and then there was a little squeak.’
Three weeks later the couple were able
to hold Sven for the first time and Elaine
nursed her infant daily until he could go
home.
‘There are days we pinch ourselves
to ensure we are not dreaming. Sven
completes us. My family and church were
amazing throughout this process. We owe
everything we have to God.’
So where to from now - ‘a sister for Sven’
says Elaine, as she admits to purchasing a
pregnancy magazine a week earlier.
‘There is no cost to happiness.’