It’s been nearly one year since world champion shot-putter Dame Valerie Adams gave birth to baby Kimoana, fulfilling her dream of becoming a mum.
But it wasn’t an easy journey for her and husband Gabriel Price, the 33-year-old Olympian told Tagata Pasifika as she opened up about her fertility struggle.
"When Kimoana came along it was the most amazing blessing I've experienced in my life, really," she said.
"A lot of people don't know we actually had the baby through fertility, through IVF, and throughout the journey I came to the realisation that a lot of Pacific people who have the same issues don't have the knowledge that this is available."
Dame Valerie won silver in her shot put event at the Gold Coast with her daughter Kimioana watching on in the crowd. (Source: Other)
Coming from a big family with many siblings, Dame Valerie says this was unexpected.
"I had something called endometriosis and I didn't know, like it's something where you can't see it," she said. "What I found out was whenever I had my period it was really bad. Like I had really bad cramps...but I just dealt with it.
"I took some Nurofen, carried on training, it was no big deal. But I didn't realise that was all the side effects of having endometriosis and its unfortunately generic. After the first cycle where we were unsuccessful they decided to test me for this.
"I was disheartened by this because I just didn't think this would happen to me," she said.
The fertility issues also put a lot of pressure on her marriage.
"He didn't know how to be...and don't forget at the same time I'm jabbing myself four times a day and your hormones are all over the show," she said.
"It's vicious, it's horrible, and I didn't realise how stressed Gabriel was until we spoke about it later on."
When Dame Valerie found out she was pregnant in the second cycle, she was overjoyed.
"I would actually kill for her," she said, beaming. "I call her my miracle child because she is."
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