Tasha and Ross Frampton married almost nine years ago, in 2008. When they wed, they knew they wanted to start a family together soon, and so in 2009, they began to try having a kid.
For three years, the couple’s attempts to become pregnant were never successful. Tasha, 33, remembered the struggles she and her husband endured during this time. “After three years of trying for a baby our GP sent us for fertility tests but the results came back all clear,” she remembered.
That’s when the couple went back to the doctor to ask for more specific help. They were doing everything right; why weren’t they able to become pregnant?
Tasha recounted, “My doctor suggested I should lose some weight as this could be affecting our chances.”
This, however, was not the answer the couple had been hoping for. Tasha even rebutted, “At first, I felt annoyed and I was in denial for a long time, some of my friends who already had children were the same size or even bigger than me so I didn’t understand what the problem was.”
Tasha’s doctor tried to break down her logic and explain things further to the hopeful couple. “My BMI was nearly at 40,” Tasha detailed, “which meant I was severely obese, and our GP explained that to be eligible for IVF my BMI would need to be lower than 30.”
That was when Tasha realized how unhealthy her life was. She confessed that she was “addicted” to eating fast food, especially McDonald’s. Most nights, she and Ross would order takeaway and even order tons of extra food that they didn’t need to get full.
“I was faced with a choice,” Tasha said, “to carry eating the way I was or to become a mum.”
She’d wanted to be a mother for as long as she’d remembered, so the choice was simple. “I chose to be a mum and was determined to lose the weight,” she said.
The unhealthy eating habits had started way back in 2009, back when she and Ross had first begun trying to have a child together. After several months passed without any luck, Tasha began to fall into a depression and turned to food to comfort herself.
She’d already been gaining some weight before she and Ross had married, but the year after they wed, her weight really shot up.
Once Tasha made all of these realizations and was warned by her doctor that she wouldn’t be able to have a child with her current weight, she decided to join a fitness program and change her life.
“The weight fell off instantly and I lost five and a half pounds in the first week which felt amazing,” Tasha remembered. She would go on walks during her lunch break and became strict on her diet, refusing to eat unhealthy food and trading them for healthier food choices.
Within the year, Tasha had lost about 126 pounds, but was still unable to naturally conceive, so she returned to the doctor. There, the doctor gave her good news.
Because Tasha’s weight loss had dropped her BMI from 40 to under 30, she was finally eligible to receive IVF treatment.
Finally, after six years of trying to have a child, in March 2015, Tasha was given the IVF hormone injections. “An embryo was implanted in my womb and two weeks later we received the most amazing news that I was pregnant,” Tasha gushed.
Come December 2015, Tasha and Ross were the proud parents of their newborn daughter, Arabelle. She is absolutely adorable and the joy of her parents’ lives.
Tasha is now hoping to return to her fitness regimen after Arabelle’s birth so she can continue maintaining her weight at a healthy range and not let it dictate her life anymore.
We wish the Frampton family the best of luck in their life together and spread our best wishes to Tasha for overcoming her weight struggles to beomce a mother.
