After making the decision to go through IVF, Laura Bradford was momentarily gobsmacked by just how much it would cost.
"When I first got my IVF prescription quote of $5k I was panicked," she wrote in an Instagram post. However, she soon discovered an entire community of "infertility warriors" who came together to help out a stranger trying to get pregnant.
"What I didn't see was the community God was preparing to surround me with," she wrote, explaining that "an army of infertility warriors that I only know via hashtags and small boxes on Instagram" began sending her their unopened medicine.
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As PopSugar reports, Brafford found out that her doctor's office would allow her to use leftover medication from other patients, as long as they were sealed and not expired, so she put out a call for donations from anyone with leftover bottles.
Since then, she's been floored by the response from people across the country who have sent along their bottles, along with supportive notes.
"I have about $3,500 of unopened medication that these girls sent to me," she wrote. "Packages that not only came with no strings attached, but were filled with prayers and encouragement for our journey."
In vitro fertilization, a medical procedure where an egg is fertilized by sperm outside of the body, can be both emotionally and financially taxing. The average cycle can cost about $10,000 to $20,000, and given that IVF often requires more than one cycle, every little bit that strangers are offering Brafford will help.
"With so much being wrong with our world today & so much heartache felt through the #infertility journey, this group of women don't get enough credit for the chain of miracles they are creating everyday," Brafford wrote. "From the bottom of my heart, thank you to my #ttcsisters."
Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.
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