Đinh Thị Niềm (centre) and her husband Nguyễn Văn Yên (left) speak about their journey to become parents. — VNA/VNS Photo Thùy Giang

HÀ NỘI — Over the years, many poor families have been given in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment for free, realising their dream of becoming parents.

Each family has a different story and different situation, but in the end, they all have found happiness after a long wait.

On Sunday at the closing ceremony of the programme "Golden Week - Nurturing happiness 2023," organised by the Andrology and Fertility Hospital of Hà Nội (AF Hà Nội), many families discussed their journey to parenthood.

Đinh Thị Niềm and her husband Nguyễn Văn Yên, are a Tày ethnic couple from Bắc Quang District in the northern mountainous province of Hà Giang.

They got married in 2013, but faced many difficulties and pressures chasing their dream to start a family.

Niềm has both fallopian tubes blocked, so she can't get pregnant and have a baby naturally.

The couple also struggled to afford IVF treatment, and thought they had lost all hope of starting a family.

Niềm's family heard about the Golden Week - Nurturing happiness programme 2021 and she applied to join.

They were one of 10 couples chosen to receive free IVF in 2021.

After undergoing treatment at the AF hospital, her and her husband’s efforts finally paid off when Niềm gave birth to a baby girl in June last year.

Another couple in a similar situation is Phạm Thị Thanh Hương and her husband Hà Minh Tráng from the northern province of Vĩnh Phúc.

They spent 10 years trying for a child with no luck.

Tráng suffers from azoospermia due to blocked vas deferens which means he has no measurable sperm in his semen.

To administer IVF, doctors at the AF Hà Nội performed the PESA method, which takes sperm from the epididymis and combined with the wife's ovum to raise an embryo for five days.

As a result, the couple welcomed their beloved child, a baby boy, at the end of last year.

Another touching story came from Trần Thị Xuân Thùy and Lê Anh Tuấn who live in Hà Nội.

They both suffer from Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes people’s body to have less haemoglobin than normal.

If they conceive and give birth naturally, the baby is likely to have the disease inherited from the parents.

They were advised by doctors to undergo IVF, and have a genetic testing diagnosis before embryo transfer to make sure they have a healthy baby.

Difficulties mounted up when Thùy had submucosal fibroids and uterine polyps, which affected the embryo implantation.

Doctors performed laparoscopic surgery to remove polyps and fibroids to increase the likelihood of successful embryo transfer.

Luck came after many failed embryo transfers. In 2021, Thùy was informed she was pregnant with twins.

In the middle of last year, the little angels were born to the happiness of the whole family.

Lê Thị Thu Hiền, professional director of the AF Hà Nội, said that in the past ten years, tens of thousands of infertile families had been successfully helped by the hospital.

The hospital always provided an appropriate treatment regimen to different families to bring maximum efficiency.

The Golden Week programme had been organised annually by the hospital since 2015.

This year, the hospital would conduct five free-of-charge support packages for IVF treatment for poor couples. — VNS