The Hollow Heart: The True Story of How One Woman's Desire to Have a Baby Almost Destroyed Her Life

by Martina Devlin (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.29

  In three attempts at in-vitro fertilisation, Martina Devlin lost nine 'maybe babies'. But she also lost her marriage and her dreams of becoming a mother. The Hollow Heart is the story of Martina's journey from early bewilderment at being diagnosed as infertile, through the traumatic process of IVF, to the shattering fall-out when she realized that not only would she never have children, but that her relationship with her husband had been damaged beyond repair. Martina also describes how her despair eventually faded and how she made a new life for herself. Most of all The Hollow Heart is the story of a woman learning to do as her mother always advised to count her blessings.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.29

  In three attempts at in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) Martin Devlin lost nine embryos. But she also lost her marriage and her dreams of becoming a mother. The Hollow Heart describes Devlin's bewilderment at being diagnosed as infertile, the physical and emotional demands of going through IVF and the shattering fall-out when it failed. She also describes how her despair eventually faded, and how she learned to take pleasure in her extended family of nieces and nephews and, as her mother always advised, to count her blessings. And in enumerating them I am struck by this. Their quantity.