Miracle baby Maggie: Shepparton’s first IVF success story

But her arrival on New Year’s Day this year also heralded a new era for births in Shepparton.

Maggie is the first IVF baby born under a new Public Fertility Care Service that started in late 2024 at Goulburn Valley Health, which works with The Royal Women’s Hospital to support regional women to access free public fertility services.

Sarah and Leigh were the first couple to take part in the program, becoming involved when it started.

It has meant their IVF journey could be done through the public health system, saving them thousands of dollars, and making their journey so much easier with the majority of their appointments being held in Shepparton rather than Melbourne.

The Fortes decided to use IVF after losing their baby son Patrick at 21 weeks in May 2023 during Sarah’s last pregnancy.

Complications with the placenta on that occasion, where Patrick was not being supplied enough blood, combined with Sarah’s age, meant that IVF was recommended to them as the safest option this time around.

And so started their IVF journey.

Under the program, Shepparton has two trained IVF nurses and a fertility-trained consultant who see women for their first visit and support them throughout their treatment cycles, including arranging medications and educating them on how to administer them.

Women only need to travel to Melbourne for the egg retrievals and implantations of embryos.

With appointments every two or three weeks, being able to have them in Shepparton was a relief to the Fortes, and something they said would benefit all couples using the Shepparton program.

It meant they did not have to take days off work to go to Melbourne for appointments, scans or even just blood tests.

“Being local, I just scheduled them in work time,” Sarah said.

Many appointments with the doctors in Melbourne were also able to be done via Telehealth, meaning Leigh was also able to be at all of them, even when he was working away.

“The ability for Leigh to be included in so much was really important,” Sarah said.

The fact that IVF was available through the public health system was also something that made it easier for them, and is something they said would definitely benefit families where the costs of doing IVF privately would make it out of reach.

“We still probably would have pursued it, but we would have had to sacrifice for it,” Sarah said.

Under the public system, patients have two egg collections, as well as all embryo transfers that are available from those eggs.

For the Fortes, Maggie came from the last of the embryos to be transferred after the second egg collection.

Knowing they had only one embryo left, the couple waited for three months after the previous transfer did not take, in order for Sarah to allow her body to recover and get healthier.

It was then a case of success.

The Shepparton couple could not fault their treatment by all staff under the program.

“At all the meetings in Shepp, the staff were just so excited and passionate,” Sarah said.

They also knew about the couple having lost Patrick, and kept a close eye on the placenta this time around, with scans every four weeks.

“We were told if we were ever worried, just come in,” Sarah said.

“The team they put around us was phenomenal.”

In November, Sarah was admitted to hospital for five days with gallstones, which also caused her to lose weight.

Because of this, there was less room for the baby in her womb, and as such, the baby was not as active.

“To have points where she wasn’t as active, it was worrying,” Sarah said.

“The nurses would put the monitors on and see that everything was okay.

“Having lost Patrick, it was draining.

“It was scary.

“That last month I was a wreck.”

Now with their baby girl in their arms, and being doted on by sister Emily and brother William, the Fortes cannot recommend the Shepparton IVF program enough.

“A lot of people think IVF is out of reach,” Leigh said.

“But it’s not out of reach if people are short on money or have medical conditions,” Sarah said.

“If we can help just another family who have been through what we have been through, to know that they have options.”

“It’s meant everything to our family.”

GV Health midwifery director Carmel Brophy was pleased the program was being offered in Shepparton.

“It is very exciting to see babies being born locally and to follow families on their journey to parenthood through IVF services,” she said.

“We look forward to supporting many more IVF journeys in the future.”

As for the Fortes, they couldn’t be happier.

“She’s our miracle baby,” Sarah said.

“It was a lot of hard work from a lot of people.

“All babies are important, but with this one it’s just a little bit more.”