At Carnival UK, we’re passionate about your wellbeing and creating a supportive place to work. We pride ourselves on our flexible working and inclusion agenda, making our company an open and transparent place to work.
As part of this we want to raise awareness about fertility treatment and empower colleagues and line managers to find the support they need for any individual that is considering or experiencing fertility treatment. That’s why we’ve launched a new ‘Let’s Talk About Fertility’ guide.
We know this can be a sensitive topic to balance both personally and professionally and are proud to help break the silence of what can often be a isolating and challenging journey. We also wanted to share how one of our colleagues was empowered through their personal fertility journey via the support network made available at Carnival UK.
Please be aware that the following content may include some triggering/sensitive themes. If you feel you’d like to talk to someone, remember you can contact one of our Mental Health First Aiders or your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Validium.
This is Naomi’s story…
Over the 4 years, we have experienced 5 pregnancies which ended in miscarriage/loss. Four were through natural conception. We then had to consider fertility treatment and our fifth miscarriage was from our first UK In vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycle. We’ve now decided to continue our journey as we start to consider fertility treatment overseas.
Infertility is hard, it tests your strength, resilience, mental health, relationship, friendships and to others it seems as if trying for a baby is consuming your every thought, but this is the truth, it does, and you change along the way. Infertility and fertility treatment is also physically, emotionally and mentally demanding. Knowing that I could have open, supportive conversations with both my manager and Carnival UK was reassuring and refreshing as not every company out there supports this yet. Looking ahead to the future, I know that for our second cycle the support will still be there, and I can proceed knowing that for this short period in time I can focus my energies equally and maintain that all important healthy work life balance.”
We’re all different, so what affects your wellbeing may not be the same for somebody else. and it can change from moment to moment, day to day, or month to month. Talking to someone about your own wellbeing can be difficult but here at Carnival UK we want to ensure you have the access you need should you require further support or guidance. Visit our wellbeing hub for more information.
2 Comments
Thank you so much for sharing your story Naomi
Hi Claire, Thank you for reading the article.
Anything that can help others is so important. There is so much more I wanted to write above about the journey my husband and I have been on.
This information below is for anyone else who might read the below in the future and if anyone reading this has any questions on anything to do with the below or needs support please don’t hestitate to contact me as I will happily talk about infertility and what I have learnt along the way.
**Get your Man checked from the start – It is only a sample and will tell you so much and as a couple you will then know where to focus your time, energy and resources on going forwardby having a sperm Analysis & Sperm DNA Fragmentation test carried out for around £400-500.
Male Factor Infertility, Sperm DNA Fragmentation, Supplements are so important.
Proxeed and Impryl are highly recommended male supplements.
I use Proceive as they have good levels in them.
Reducing process food consumption and eating a rainbow.
Avoiding caffine
Gut Health is so important – Probiotics
Kimchi, Sourkraut, Kefir – fermented food all boost your immune system
Female Microbiome is also important – INVIVO
Note: If taking Antibotics you will need to repopulate your system with good bacteria again as antibotics kill everything off. Get some probitotics into your gut and via Canesflor/Cancesbalance.
Research the toxins you use on your body, shampoos, conditioners, body wash, household products, suncreams, mosiquito protection, a good app to use here in the UK is called YUKA!
The books called ISWTE and Is your your body baby friendly are must reads. I read these books in the early stages of our journey and thought wow there is so much that people have to consider or deal with, never realising that some of those things listed in the book would ring true for us as a couple.
NOTE: Your GP can refer you to any Dr, Hospital in the UK ie I have requested for referrals to Epsom Hospital to see Dr Shehata for Immune tests ie NK Cells. As well as a previous referal to St Marys Hospital for Recurrent Miscarriages via Tommys Miscarriage Charity for tests which revealed I have an inherited Blood Clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden.
I wish I had of known about Fertility Network all those years ago since having started TTC and the support they too can offer.
If going for IVF here in the UK research your clinic, have a look to see if there are Facebook Groups for the clinic as these will give you the best insight into their service and personal experiences.
Access Fertility for financial support packages for IVF are such a brilliant service, we used them for a multicycle package (2 cycles) we only completed once cycle and requested a refund which was processed quickly.
Carnival have been amazing and we are looking forward to potentially going abroad for our 2nd cycle to a clinic based in Athens called ARK this October. We are hoping that my husbands Hyperthyroidisum and thyroid levels will have come down, that when he repeats his sperm DNA Fragmentation test that his fragmentation levels will have improved, we need to get Karyotyping done to check for balanced translocations and maybe for me to have a Hycosy. Then we are good to go, some of these I am going to enquire to be done on the NHS.
If anyone wishes to contact me for support or to ask me questions please pop me a TEAMS or an email and I would gladly meet up for a chat.