You may be confused. What’s up with this picture of a baby surrounded by syringes? Well, for those who have gone through the struggle of infertility and the painful process of in-vitro fertilization, this picture is probably a familiar reality–encapsulating the difficult journey some women face.
The viral photo was initially posted on Sher Institutes’ Facebook page, having been shared about 3,000 times since Monday. The hundreds of syringes show that something miraculous and beautiful can come out of pain: They were used by the mother in order to conceive. This photo is clearly worth more than any amount of words, proving the need for women to share their stories with others.
READ: Sharing Our Stories of Infertility
While it may seem unbelievable that all these needles were used by one woman, the patient’s fertility doctor Molina Dayal, told ABC News that these weren’t even all the supplies. She explained how the mother had already undergone multiple IVF cycles over the course of two years at the Sher Institute in St. Louis.
Interestingly, the mother explained how the hard part wasn’t the needles:
“The needles were the easy part. It was the emotional struggle, the ups and downs, that really took a toll. I’m single and waited a long time for a husband to come. And then by that time it was difficult to get pregnant.”
Mazel tov!
