// BBC HEALTH NEWS — SALUTE
'It was heartbreaking to attend a fertility appointment in a maternity unit'
Niamh Smyth said she was shocked to find out where she had been directed to go when looking for the gynaecology department
A woman who has been on a 10-year IVF journey is calling for fertility and gynaecology appointments to be separated from maternity services in some hospitals following her "heartbreaking" experience.
Niamh Smyth and her husband Justyn have spent over a decade trying to start a family, undergoing four rounds of IVF (In vitro fertilisation), with three unsuccessful attempts and one pregnancy which ended in miscarriage.
After nearly five years on a gynaecology waiting list, Smyth attended her appointment in May in the Ulster Hospital in Northern Ireland.
However, struggling to find the whereabouts of the gynaecology department in the hospital, she said she was shocked to find out where she had been directed to go.
"I phoned them and asked where the gynaecology department was," she said.
"They told me it was inside the maternity unit. Whenever I heard that, my heart just dropped."
'Opportunity to reform NI's maternity services missed'
'Emotional' day as first baby loss certificates applied for in NI
She described sitting alongside expectant parents and families before receiving difficult news about her fertility.