Cape County parents plan to grant money for IVF through their foundation

After a few years of trying to conceive, many tests, almost 100 shots of hormones, one surgery, countless visits to doctors in St. Louis and Southeast Missouri and much more, Hayden Tidwell was born in October.

Her parents, Katie and Nathan Tidwell, had to put in a lot of time, effort and money to have her through their first time doing an in vitro fertilization (IVF), but luckily, money was not an issue for them in the process.

While driving back from a doctor's visit, Katie said they started talking about helping other people financially get the same treatment that brought Hayden into their lives. They thought of creating a foundation to raise money and then donate the funds to a family in need of an IVF as their only option to have a family.

The couple then created the Three Hearts Foundation to accomplish that goal and raise awareness of infertility.

"The fact that it worked for us, we're super blessed, and we know that it doesn't work for everybody. But to even give somebody a chance would mean the world to us," Katie said.

People participate in Three Hearts Foundation's Infertility Awareness Walk in May 2020 at Cape County Park South in Cape Girardeau.Submitted

According to the Mayo Clinic, IVF "is a complex series of procedures used to help with fertility or prevent genetic problems and assist with the conception of a child." During the process, mature eggs and a sample of sperm are collected to make an embryo outside of the body, in a laboratory. When they are combined and make an embryo, it is then placed inside a uterus, where the pregnancy will take place.

The three hearts in the Three Hearts Foundation name represent the hearts of the Tidwells' current family, but also the three embryos Katie said resulted from the IVF, Hayden being one of them.

"The fact that I carried her 40 weeks is a miracle to me, because everything else just didn't seem to be in our favor, and my body was actually able to, for once, not miscarry," Katie said.

Katie is a former labor and delivery nurse who now runs two businesses — MNT Industrial Underground LLC and Midwest Cable Splicing Inc. — and the foundation with Nathan. They are both from Millersville originally and have been together since 2006 and married since 2011.

Katie said Nathan is her rock and was very supportive through the process before and during the IVF.

Three Hearts Foundation board members, back row from left, Nick Wilson, secretary Alex Austin, Lindsay Reinagel and Krista Taylor, front row, co-founder and president Katie and co-founder and treasurer Nathan Tidwell. Not pictured, Heather Watkins.Submitted

"It was more so very stressful seeing her go through [the IVF hormone injections]," Nathan said. "I kinda almost didn't believe in IVF, due to religious reasons ... because I kinda felt like that was playing God. .... And I didn't really come to peace with it until it was, like, people get cancer everyday and they have medicine to take for cancer, they have treatment for cancers, but I kind of looked at it as that's a treatment for our problem."

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average IVF cycle can cost anywhere from $12,000 to $17,000, and with medication, the cost is around $25,000.

Katie said the foundation recently raised enough funds to grant the money to an applicant in need of the treatment, and plans to open applications next month.

When it is time to choose, the foundation's board members will review the anonymous applications. Katie said people may also reapply if they are not chosen the first time. The first grant will be given out in the fall.

Neither of the Tidwells nor any of the board members are paid for their work with the foundation, Katie said, and 100% of the fundraising stays within the organization.

Looking forward, the Tidwells hope to increase awareness of infertility even more and raise enough funds to grant treatment money to more than one applicant a year.

"If you think you don't know somebody who is struggling, you probably do, they just aren't talking about it," Katie said. "So, the support means the world to everybody, and I know this grant is going to be life changing for somebody."

The foundation will be hosting the second annual Infertility Awareness Walk on May 22 at Cape County Park South. Registration is on their website, www.threeheartsfoundation.com, and will be open on the day of the walk.

Katie encourages everyone to attend the walk, including IVF and non-IVF children.

"We always say, every baby is a miracle because even if you didn't go through IVF or any sort of infertility, just trying to have a baby and it working for you for the first time, it's a miracle. Unless you think about, you know, everything that really has to line up perfectly for it to work, its — every baby is a miracle. Some are just a miracle in a different way," Katie said.