It took hundreds of needles, 4 years to have baby. Moms’ inspiring photo shows payoff | The Kansas City Star

When Patricia and Kimberly O’Neill decided to have a baby through in-vitro fertilization, they thought it would be easy, according to AZFamily.

Four years, three miscarriages and 1,616 needles later, they know sometimes it’s not easy. But now they want to inspire other families to keep pushing and hoping even when it seems like too much.

A photo of the moms’ newborn baby, London, has taken Facebook by storm. The picture, taken by Samantha Packer of Packer Family Photography in Glendale, Arizona, shows London swaddled in a rainbow blanket surrounded by 1,616 syringes arranged in a heart.

“This is the first time I have been asked to do a photo like this! I was honored and wanted to create something special!,” Packer wrote. “Mom said, “4 years, 7 attempts, 3 miscarriages and 1,616 shots.’”

“She jumped at the challenge when we showed up for the shoot,” Kimberly told Mom.me. “I almost cried. I knew it was going to be perfect.”

Their journey had begun four years ago when the moms decided to become parents, according to the Facebook post.



After trying several methods and undergoing two miscarriages, Patricia was diagnosed with a blood disorder that required injections of blood thinners to keep her pregnancy viable, the site reported.

She kept every needle, and eventually baby London was born.

“I was done poking myself, I was done with the emotional roller coaster,” she told AZFamily. “It was scary, it was scary up until delivery.”

Now hundreds of people are finding beauty and inspiration in the photo the women have shared of their baby. The picture had been shared on Facebook more than 50,000 times by Friday.

Patricia posted under the photo and brought attention to the struggles infertility can cause.

“Each one of those shots were worth it to get our little girl. We cannot wait to get this printed and hung up. We know many couples face infertility yet it’s not talked about very often. Infertility is evil however my wife and I believe in the power of prayer which got us thru the last four years,” she wrote.

The moms told Fox 8 they wanted the photo to “give others hope and perseverance to push forward.” Patricia wants London to be able to look at the photo, too, and use it as a reminder to always keep trying, according to AZFamily.

“Hopefully she’ll learn that you never give up on a goal that you have, and that even when you have no hope, hold onto it because there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and you can get there,” she told the site.