Across Women's Lives

Isabelle Laurans and her boyfriend tried for years to have a baby. When nothing else worked, they decided to try in vitro fertilization, or IVF. But halfway through the process, Laurans' boyfriend changed his mind. He dumped her the day they were supposed to make the embryo in the lab.Laurans says she doesn’t remember most of what went through her mind that day. What she does recall is the overwhelming fear that she’d never get to be a mom.“I was 38. I knew it would be perhaps too late for me if I waited for a new relationship.”Isabelle Laurans, IVF proponent“I was 38. I knew it would be perhaps too late for me if I waited for a new relationship,” she said.That same day, Laurans says she was on the internet, looking for a Plan B.“I didn’t want to risk missing out on becoming a mother altogether,” she explained. Isabelle Laurans poses with her daughter, Charlotte. Laurans had to leave France for IVF treatment in Belgium to get pregnant with her daughter because it is not legal in France for sin