Sophie and Rebecca from our Assisted Conception Unit
Sophie Bird, Laboratory Manager Assisted Conception Unit
“I’ve worked at St Helier Hospital in the Assisted Conception Unit (ACU) for one and a half years, and I’ve been in the field for over 12 years. Here in the ACU we help people who are struggling to fall pregnant naturally, using a method called in vitro fertilisation, which most people know as IVF. We’re able to see around 250 patients a year in our ACU, and we can store up to 4,000 patients worth of samples – that’s eggs, sperm, or embryos – in our six specialised storage dewars at -196OC. This means that the lab is technically home to tens of thousands of potential future humans, which is an amazing thought!
“We support patients on their journey to becoming parents and, for those lucky enough to fall pregnant, we lend a helping hand in making their baby! There are different ways that we can do this, and it’s all dependent on the individual patient’s health requirements. We use specialist equipment to prepare, work with, and store the eggs and sperm taken from our patients. Conditions in the lab are carefully monitored and great care is taken by our embryologists. Only around 25-30% of patients who receive IVF will take a baby home, and it can be an incredibly tough experience. It’s amazing when our patients do have a successful IVF cycle, and we love it when babies that we babysat in the lab for the first five days of their development are brought to visit us after birth!
“I joined St Helier Hospital from Guy’s Hospital, where we had a robust trainee programme in the ACU. I soon realised that St Helier’s ACU and the wider field would really benefit from getting the NSHCS accreditation and employing trainee embryologists - so I set it up! Getting the accreditation is quite a lengthy process, but the benefits the scheme provides are amazing, and it is open to all sorts of different departments – not just Assisted Conception. Usually you are allocated a trainee who has successfully applied for the Scientist Training Programme and wants to complete it at your hospital. This year, however, we were lucky enough to have a direct entrant - a colleague who already worked at the hospital in the field: Rebecca.”
Rebecca Williams, Trainee Embryologist, Assisted Conception Unit
“I’ve worked for the Trust for over 13 years, but I’m new to the ACU; I started working here in September. I’m the first STP student the Trust has taken on, and I’m in my first year of the three year programme. My background is in Microbiology and Andrology – for most of my career I’ve worked as a Biomedical Scientist analysing samples in the lab. After I had my children, I decided that I wanted to make a career move into a patient focused role as I’m very much a people person!
“I first visited the ACU on a Trust open day in 2016 when staff across the Trust were invited to have a look at the new lab; looking around I knew immediately that this should be my next challenge, and I made it my goal to work here. I moved into Andrology at the beginning of 2019, so that I was in the Women’s Health section of the hospital and would be working with fertility patients from the ACU. When Sophie set up the trainee scheme it was the perfect opportunity for me to join as a trainee Embryologist, and I knew I wanted to apply. Each year there are a couple of hundred applicants for only a handful of spaces available within the Embryology specialty, so getting a place was a massive achievement. I had to pass an exam and successfully complete an interview as part of the application process, and it’s only those who achieve the top 5% of marks in the exam that are offered a place on the scheme.
“The scheme is being run differently this year due to COVID, and all of my Master’s university lectures are online. This year I have a six week block of lectures, and for the rest of the academic year I’ll be working in the lab completing competencies and rotating through other related specialty disciplines – Genetics, Histology, Cytology and Andrology. Once I’ve completed the course I’ll be a Clinical Scientist, trained in all the techniques required in the embryology lab and I’ll be able to make decisions on treatment options for patients undergoing IVF , which is a step up from what I’m able to do in my current role.
Sophie and Rebecca: “We see a variety of patients here in St Helier’s ACU, and we have patients of all different ages come to the unit to be treated by us. Around 10% of our patients are referred from the Oncology departments for fertility preservation prior to chemotherapy or radiation. When people are diagnosed with cancer and need treatment that could affect their fertility they are offered the opportunity to store their eggs, sperm or embryos so that they can be used in the future, giving them the chance of a family.
“We know that when we see patients who have been referred by Oncology teams we’re meeting them at a very stressful period in their lives; often they’ve only recently been diagnosed with cancer and then, because of the need to start treatment quickly, they are being asked to make big decisions about their future plans. It is a fantastic service for those in need.
“We love being able to support our patients through their procedure and be a calming, happy presence in what can be a very uncertain time. Patients aren’t always going to get the result they want from IVF, so it’s really important to have that level of connection and realism with your patients so that you’re able to support them if things don’t work out as they’d hoped. We love seeing the happiness that our jobs can bring people when the treatment is successful, and it’s so lovely to be a part of that.”
“For us, the best part of the job is when patients come back in with their new born babies to introduce them to us. It’s really rewarding to be able to meet the babies that we helped to make and to know that you’ve helped to make a difference to someone’s life.
If you'd like to work for us check out our most recent career opportunities here on our website: https://be-more-epsom.co.uk/
