"One in a Million"

On the weekend we were discussing babies who were "meant to be"... Determined to be here. Destined to choose to be our children. Ones who have overcome odds that would normally make their existence rather unlikely.

My daughter is one of those "meant to be" babies. Given the circumstances of her conception, people are either blown away, or in disbelief, when I recall the "odds" which were against her ever being created.

For a start, I have Polycystic Ovaries. I was diagnosed with such at the age of 19, and warned that it could potentially make me rather sub-fertile. In an average year, I ovulate maybe one out of every 3 months. Thus the base percentage for my fertility level, annually, is 25 percent.

Let's break down Maya's conception further from this.

So given that my rate of fertility is 25 percent, you'd need to take into account that, given that there is only a 1 in 4 chance of pregnancy at the time of ovulation when using no contraception (on average 25 percent of unprotected incidents of sex during ovulation results in an actual pregnancy) my base rate for fertility (had I not used any contraception) the night I conceived (given that I must have ovulated else she'd not be here) Maya would have been 6.25%... Fair enough, not "bad" odds but you'd consider it "unlikely".

However given that I was actively using contraception methods (proactive ie. planned contraception) which possess a success rate of 98%, this reduces the odds of conception down to 0.125%. Starting to become a whole let loss likely that she should be here, right?

Then you need to take into account that, following the ineffectivity of the proactive contraception, I opted for an immediate reactive contraception (in the form of an emergency contraceptive). Following the pharmacist's instructions, the morning after pill reduces the possibility of pregnancy by a further 89 percent. Rendering the overall likelihood of conception to a miniscule 0.01375%

And yet despite all this, I have my beautiful, happy, bright little baby girl... And wouldn't change that for the world, of course!

It just makes you wonder ever so much more, about whether chance, or fate, or destiny are a lot more impactual than we might think. I tend to try and be as much as a realist as possible, but given that conceiving my daughter possesses the same amount of odds as a 72:1 Racehorse winning the Melbourne Cup, I'm resigning to think that something else magical must have an influence somehow... And, considering such crazy odds have been overcome just once, well then by gosh, maybe we as a family should be buying more lottery tickets, too ;)

Until next time, peace out...