u/buddrball

Wanted to share a personal story of how Downton impacted me. Trigger warning for fertility journeys and loss.

I’ve been doing IVF for 1.5y as a 40yo after suffering the loss of my first pregnancy at 20w. I’m on my millionth rewatch, 2nd rewatch in the past two years. I have a better appreciation for Cora’s loss and what she would have gone through. And she didn’t have modern medicine or pain medications to help her in her delivery.

But on a happier note (and I promise it gets happier!), my IVF cycles had not gone well for the first year. We got two embryos from 4 cycles. I was on my 5th cycle while watching season 6, and I was tickled by Anna and Bates shouting “bad harvest” to trick the gods into letting them have a baby. I started saying “bad harvest” any time I would think of the outcome. I said it at appointments, washing the dishes, driving around town, while gardening. My husband started saying it with me. We both said it as the last thing going into my egg retrieval. When we got the results a month later, I was shocked. We got 5 healthy embryos. It took a week for me to believe they had it right. I still tear up thinking about it. This is only the first step for us, and we will likely need a surrogate…but you better believe I will be shouting “bad harvest” at every next step in the process.

So here’s to wishing a bad harvest for everyone with whatever ambition you have your heart set on. Thanks for reading