Unless you’ve been through IVF treatments yourself, you can’t truly understand just how emotional the process is. But a beautiful picture of a desperately-wanted baby girl conceived via IVF has captured at least part of the emotional struggle involved.
The unnamed baby was born to new mum Angela after she underwent fertility treatment at Sher Institutes in the US with specialist Dr Molina Dayal. The photo shows the baby in a cute dress surrounded by countless syringes to represent the IVF process.
It was shared on Facebook by Sher Institutes with the caption, "Wow, what a photo. Thank you to Sher Fertility St. Louis and Dr. Dayal patient Angela, who shows the true definition of love that went into making this gorgeous new baby girl."
It has already been liked and shared thousands of times, with Facebook users inspired to post pictures of their own "IVF babies" in the comments.
Some, like Sara Husson, shared their own IVF success stories:
"Didn't even tell my husband what this was, I just handed him my phone. I saw tears form in his eyes as he probably also went through the memories of countless nights, over our four year journey, that he gave me shots. We finally were successful with twin boys and I've never been happier!"
IVF is a notoriously grueling treatment - women are required to give themselves hormone injections daily to boost the production of eggs.
We wish Angela and her beautiful daughter all the very best.
Have you ever gone through IVF? How did you handle the emotional side of the treatment?