Brett and Hayley Howard lovingly refer to their daughter Breanna as a four-year prodigy.
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The Howards, who now reside in St Georges Basin, went through IVF to conceive Breanna.
They started the process in Cairns but after three years and no luck made the move to Brett's home town of Wollongong.
Their 18-month old daughter was born a year after they started working with IVF Australia Wollongong clinical director Dr David Greening at The Fertility Clinic in Wollongong.
The happy couple are now ready to expand their family but unforseen obstacles in the shape of the COVID-19 pandemic halted their plans to give Breanna a brother or sister.
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But the Howards were breathing a sigh of relief earlier this week when the government lifted the temporary suspension of elective surgeries, including IVF.
"The way I see it is we had a four-year struggle with all the stresses involved with Hayley falling pregnant with Breanna....and that was without any restrictions that COVID-19 sort of brought with it," Mr Howard said.
"The stresses now, especially for Hayley and other women I feel are much greater.
"I understand with all these restrictions and people in self-isolation....that the likelihood is that more babies will be born in the months ahead. But unfortunately for couples like us who struggle to conceive, these restrictions don't help us at all."
The Howards though were feeling good on Monday when they had their first IVF consultation with Dr Greening.
The doctor was also pleased the COVID-19 situation was improving and the temporary suspension of elective surgeries had been lifted.
"Obviously this will take a lot of stress of the people who were unable to conceive naturally and had to go down potentially the IVF route. And, that being put on hold, people couldn't move forward. I think it will be very welcome news to those people," Dr Greening said.
"I think if you can't conceive naturally and you've got to do some form of treatment such as IVF to conceive, that is stressful, then to be told you can't do it when the rest of the world can conceive naturally and even in the middle of COVID-19 people are conceiving."
He said safety was a priority.
"We have heightened our infection and cleaning practices and patients will be COVID-19 tested where appropriate, as advised by their fertility specialist. We are practising social distancing and we are continuing to offer fertility consultations via phone or online video conferencing," Dr Greening said.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
