African Woman and Child Feature Service

A woman who has suffered physical and emotional violence for close to eight years for being unable to conceive was all smiles when a pregnancy test she did following an In Vitro Fertilization showed she was three weeks pregnant.

Judy (not her real name) said her life has been hell, with her husband subjecting her to emotional and physical violence that almost cost her life.

“Whenever we had misunderstanding on other issues, he brought in the baby issue and the beating and abuse started,” says Judy.

Asked how the husband has responded to the pregnancy, Judy says “he seems to be confused after what he has taken me through.” The husband who was diagnosed with sperms of poor motility- inability of the sperm to move and fertilize the egg-could only have a baby through In Vitro Fertilization.

The search for a baby for the couple begun in 2001 immediately after Judy completed college studies. At first the husband accepted to be patient when she took long to conceive. Then a couple of years later, he became irritated and impatient anytime whenever she said she was menstruating.

This put a lot of pressure on her to seek for doctors help. After hoping form one medic to another and unable to conceive, she decided to try herbalists.

“I travelled to Tanzania to meet a herbalist who was highly recommended by a friend of mine for his ability to assist women with difficulties to conceive to get babies,” recalls Judy.

After taking several herbal concoctions from the herbalist for over seven months, there was no positive outcome. She abandoned her Tanzania trips and decided to try local herbalists. It did not work as well.

“I even had to fast on several occasions and still every month it was tears whenever I saw my menstrual periods.”

She gave up her efforts and left everything to God. But her hopes were rekindled when she read about Dr Joshua Noreh of Nairobi IVF Centre who had managed to help hundreds of infertile women to get babies.

Judy says although the Sh 300,000 charged is too costly for her, she found a way of raising it. “I had saved Sh 120,000 on my account and used a loan from my cooperative society and some money from my sister to cover the shortfall.”

She has already discussed at length with her sister on how they are going to manage her pregnancy. Hiring someone to look after her during pregnancy time and after birth, are top issues on their agenda.

“I have made some savings and if he does not support this pregnancy, I am going to live away from him. This baby is too important to allow even a single abusive word,” equips Judy.