Deb Knight's IVF attempt failed. Then she had to put a mask on for the 5pm news bulletin.

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Deb Knight was in the midst of an emotionally-draining two-and-a-half-year battle to conceive, yet she still had to present the news as if nothing was wrong.

The journalist told Mamamia that throughout the 12 rounds of IVF she underwent to conceive her first son, Darcy, she struggled to keep it together at work.

“It was hard because at that stage I was presenting the ‘5pm News’ in Sydney for Channel 10, their flagship bulletin … I had to have my stuff together. I had to be organised and professional,” she said.

A post shared by Deborah Knight (@deborah_knight) on Mar 9, 2017 at 11:58pm PST

Deb, now a mother-of-three and Weekend Today co-host, said she thought of herself as a “different person” to the journalist who had to put on a happy face when she felt anything but.

“In the morning, I was going off and having blood tests for rounds of IVF and being told that an implantation had failed and then I’d have to go into work.”

“That was quite difficult to put that mask on. I would put the hair and makeup on and my mask on and go and try to do my job. It was hard.”

The 44-year-old said worrying about her infertility and what her future might be left her distressed.

“I kind of think I was a different person then.”

“I look back at myself then and I think I was such a sad person. I was deeply quite distressed about the road my life might take. Quite different to what I’d envisaged.

“I was a very different person then and I put a lot of that and those experiences into a compartment.”

Almost two years after Deb finally gave birth to Darcy, now eight years old, she and her partner Lindsay went through the process again.

"Elsa came along much easier and at that point I didn’t really mind because we had one little baby … She was IVF too but much less problematic. It was two rounds of IVF.

But even then, "it was costly emotionally and financially and a very, very difficult time".

"You always hear that it’s an emotional rollercoaster and that’s exactly what it is. But I kept going and I thought I have no other option here. I just have to keep trying."

Then, six years later, when Deb was 42, she conceived naturally. She and Lindsay completed their family with Audrey, who is now fourteen months old.

"I do look at her … and think ‘wow you were just so determined to come into this world’ and she is a real go-getter."

Mamamia's Infertility Week shines a light on the joy, the pain and everything in between when it comes to creating families. To read more from Infertility Week, click here.