Feiping Chang, who is expecting her first child, offers candid anecdotes on what she has learnt so far on her journey to motherhood—from overcoming the stigma attached to IVF to appreciating the power of the human body.
You can count on Feiping Chang to speak her mind. The Hong Kong-based style influencer is famously vocal about things she cares about, from fashion and food to Asian representation in media. More recently, Chang has opened up about her deeply personal battle with fertility. Using her growing social media platform to share her story and experiences, Chang reveals her long and painful path to pregnancy to inspire and provide comfort to those who are on a similar journey.
A month after the glamorous mother-to-be announced on Instagram that she and her husband Lincoln Li were expecting their first child together, Chang shared a video chronicling her experience with in vitro fertilisation (IVF). “We tried to conceive naturally for a while but when that didn’t happen we both went to the doctors to see if everything was OK. There was nothing medically wrong with either of us,” she says.
After a “draining” eight months of traditional Chinese medicinal therapies, which produced no result, the couple began IVF in autumn 2019. After the onset of Covid-19 last year, Chang and Li decided to pause their baby plans before resuming the IVF process in August. As she shares the difficult journey with her fans, Chang opens up about the mental and physical toll it took on her.
“In Asia, IVF or receiving any medical help to get pregnant still has a stigma attached to it. I don’t think there is anything to be ashamed about. We are so lucky that today, technology is available to us, so why not use it?” she says.
Here, Chang shares the five most significant lessons she has learnt during her path to motherhood so far:
1. Pregnancy isn’t always a straightforward path
While our journey was by no means an arduous one compared to many couples out there, it did take us a few years of trying different methods before going down the road of IVF. Pregnancy isn’t always simple and easy but whatever path you have to take is one worthy of being proud of, as it takes so much physical and emotional strength to be a parent and there shouldn’t be any stigma attached to seeking help.
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