'Six years, nine rounds of IVF and five miscarriages - and I’m finally going to be a mum'

When Jo McKee sent a picture of her baby bump to The TODAY show for National Selfie Day, she didn’t expect the response she got: 10,000 likes and over 250 comments, to be precise. 
 
“I just sent a picture in and didn’t expect anything more, and it was only when a colleague said “you’re famous!” and it blew me away, I didn’t expect it,” she told 9Honey. “But the response has been amazing.”

Jo and Leigh on their wedding day/Source: supplied
 
She had an operation four months later, and was told by doctors that she needed to try IVF in order to conceive. They went ahead, doing everything they could to get the baby they so desperately wanted. 
 
“It’s such a long process so when you get your positive result you’re over the moon that it’s all working. You find out when you’re four weeks pregnant, so then of course you’ve got eight weeks before you’re really safe at the twelve week mark. We lost a few in that in between stage where we got the confirmed IVF result but then we lost them. 
 
“Last year we lost twins at about 10 weeks, and that was really tough. But you lose them for different reasons, you might miscarry, or the heartbeat just stops in which case you then have to have a procedure to have them removed. Ours was a mixture of both,” she explained. 
 
“It’s been extremely tough financially. The only holidays we’ve had have been regional weekends away, or to Adelaide for the IVF treatments. We knew it was going to be a tough process, but hopefully worth it.”

Jo and Leigh never lost hope, but she did admit that their age has become a worry in recent years. Jo is 40, and Leigh is 44, so the couple have admitted that they have considered adoption, and if a doctor had told them to stop trying that would have been their next option. 

Now, Jo is daring to hope that their dreams are coming true. At 25 weeks, they’re having regular scans to reassure them that all is well. “But the further we go, the more we can allow ourselves to think “this actually is gonna happen”,” she explained. 
 
As for her new-found fame thanks to her viral Facebook photo, Jo says “The response has been amazing. It just shows how common it is. 
 
“I personally know a lot of people who have gone through some fertility journey, whether it’s IVF or ovulation triggering. I think perhaps with all the news, maybe everyone was just like “thank god there’s a positive story.””