Jemma Walton reports.

HAVING a baby is the simplest – and most complicated – thing in the world. It's nothing short of a miracle, when you think about it – a new life, a new body, grown in just nine months, and yet it's stunningly simple.

As the saying goes, birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it.

But some couples struggle to make a baby, and need a little bit of help, which is where Fiona Wynn and Wendy Eustace come in.

Related: 'You have to go through a lot with IVF'IVF is no quick or easy way of having a baby – as Mark and Sandy Corcoran know all too well, Jemma Walton, 28 July 2008.
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The two are fertility nurse specialists, and work at Peterborough District Hospital's fertility clinic, which opened in 1995 after fertility consultant John Randall came to work for the trust a year earlier.

Fiona joined in 1996, and Wendy followed in 1998, and since then, as their wall full of pictures of smiling babies proves, they have helped thousands of couples create the families of their dreams.

It is estimated that one in six couples will have difficulties conceiving, and Fiona and Wendy will help anyone as long as they are referred by their GP. The average wait to see someone at the fertility clinic, which includes Mr Randall, is five weeks.

IVF isn't actually offered in Peterborough, but in Bourn Hall, near Cambridge, and Nottingham, and Fiona and Wendy can refer patients for IVF elsewhere.

But there are a lot of things a couple can do to increase patients' chances of getting pregnant before going down the IVF route.

"There are a few factors that couples who struggle to get pregnant have in common," said Fiona. "One is weight. Being either underweight or overweight can cause problems.

"You need a certain amount of body fat to ovulate, but not too much – it really does increase a woman's chances of falling pregnant if she has a body mass index of between 20 and 25.

"But even if a woman weighs 15 stones and loses 10 per cent of her body weight, that will also have a big impact, and pregnancy can soon follow.

"Age also has an affect. After 35 there is a gradual decline in the number of eggs a woman has – a girl is born with a set amount of eggs, whereas as a man produces sperm all the time.

"And then, of course, there is how often a couple have sex. Some people just don't do it enough. Ideally it would be good to make love three to four times a week during the fertile time.

"Instead, we look at a woman's cycle to see the days of the month when she is most fertile."

Good news for anyone trying to get pregnant while holding down a high-stress job, though: the nurses say that stress shouldn't cause you fertility problems.

"If you look at the number of people who get pregnant across the world living in extreme conditions, such as refugee camps, you realise that stress isn't so much of a factor," said Fiona.

"It only affects people because being stressed at work can mean you have less time or aren't in the mood to make love."

Fiona and Wendy see couples after they are referred by their GPs. They will see people if they have tried for a baby for a year but been unsuccessful.

They will then ask the couple 150 questions, covering everything from drinking through to smoking and family history, and they will then recommend the couple for tests.