BOYBAND Blue member, Simon Webbe has become a dad for the third time after his wife gave birth to a ‘miracle’ baby, following years of failed fertility treatment.
Singer Simon, 46 and his wife Ayshen, 44, who already have a three- year-old daughter Cyan, welcomed baby Ria, weighing 7 oz 2lbs last month.
But just under a year before the birth, doctors had told Ayshen that the quality of her eggs had declined and she was very unlikely to conceive.
Then just three weeks later, having suffered five miscarriages and several failed attempts at fertility treatment over the last few years since their first daughter Cyan was born, out of the blue, Ayshen fell pregnant with Ria, which means ‘dream’ in Turkish, in honour of Ayshen’s heritage.
Talent manager Ayshen admits that it was very tough being told that she might not have another child. She told Ok Magazine: “It was brutal. I’d always pictured myself with two babies.”
Indeed Simon, who also has a grown up daughter Alannah from a previous relationship, believes that conception happened once they’d become resigned to the status quo and removed the ongoing stress of longing.
Speaking about the gruelling nature of IVF treatment, Ayshen confessed that it had left her broken.
She said: “I’m sorry to anyone going through IVF, but it ruined me as a person. It broke me, both physically and mentally. I lost myself. I was injecting myself in tears, every day. I was bruised, tired, swollen. It was a horrible experience, only to find out after everything that it didn’t work.”
Having successfully conceived Cyan, the couple started trying for a baby a year later, but Ayshen suffered a multitiude of miscarriages, which is when they decided to explore options for treatment.
She says: “We’d frozen our eggs with the previous IVF, and we decided to use the embryos, but sadly none of them would take. Then there was another miscarriage, so I think with the failed IVF, egg frozen cycles, miscarriages, three months of Clomid tablets that didn’t work, it was a lot. Like any woman who’s gone through it, going through the motions every single time, it’s just exhausting.”
The couple who have been together for a decade and married for six, admits that the draining process had an impact on their relationship: Simon says: “In the decade that we’ve been together, we’ve experienced more than most couples who’ve been together for 20 years, but we’re still going strong. This love was written from the start. But, of course, there was a lot of stress.”
Although the doctors advice felt cold at the time, Ayshen says it may have played a role in conceiving their miracle baby.
She says: “The last doctor I spoke to actually told me to my face, “Give up. You’re too old. The eggs won’t take. Go home and enjoy your one child. You’re wasting your time. No one is going to help you over the age of 40. Cut your losses.” I was shaking. I’d gone to the appointment alone, but I wish Simon had been there. It was so brutal. They blamed bad quality of my eggs because of my age.
But I look at it now as a blessing. In hindsight, it helped my mind to relax and accept that okay, maybe it isn’t going to happen. I’m a strong believer that stress will make you sick and in a weird way, it took the pressure off. I still decided to put my energy into believing it would happen. For three weeks afterwards I alkalised my body. I was drinking sea moss and pure coconut water. I stopped drinking, vaping – it takes two. Three weeks later we were pregnant naturally.”
And Simon adds that he hopes that their story serves as inspiration to anyone else in the doldrums of fertility treatment. He says: “She is a dream come true She’s proof to everyone out there to never give up. I had a neighbour tell me the other day that Ayshen and I are an inspiration to her. She’s had several miscarriages and hearing our story made her believe it could still happen for her. And that is a really beautiful thing.”
