Why I wrote a children’s book about IVF

Former Olympian Jacqui Cooper tackles a topic many children have questions about – but many parents find difficult to talk about.

When former Olympian Jacqui Cooper was going through IVF, she struggled to find relatable books on the topic.

“I craved information and I couldn’t find anything,” the former Olympic skier, 45, says.

“When you go through IVF you want information, and you want to feel like you know what you’re going through, and you want to feel hopeful as well.”

It took four years and several IVF cycles, but Jacqui and husband Mario are now parents to children Madeline, 5, and twins Grace and Thomas, 3.

“It took us a few years to get the kids and I thought, ‘when I’m finished all this, I’m writing a book’,” she says.

In fact, she’s written two books.

Frozen Hope, My IVF Journey details the highs and lows she experienced during IVF.

Yet it’s her children’s book, It Took Three To Make Me, that she feels is perhaps more important.

“You can go online and find a bit of information about IVF, but you can’t find an easy way to discuss a subject that is a little bit tricky,” she says.

Jacqui Cooper children

 

It Took Three To Make Me discusses the topic of IVF in a child-friendly way.

“I have always been honest and wanted my kids to know how much they were wanted and how much we did to have them,” Jacqui says.

Initially she wrote a poem that she intended to read to Madeline, but it soon grew in to a book.

“I read it to a few mums who had also had IVF and they wanted to read it to their children,” Jacqui says.

“It’s a way to discuss a topic that parents find difficult to discuss.”

 

 

 

 

 

It Took Three To Make Me by Jacqui Cooper, RRP, $16.99 (Piccolo Nero), and Frozen Hope, My IVF Journey by Jacqui Cooper, RRP $29.99, (Nero).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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