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I was married to my husband, George, for six weeks when I found out I couldn't have children. Natural conception was off the table, a laparoscopy revealed I had blocked tubes.

The tunnel was blocked, I had no option but to take the bridge.

Suddenly I was married to IVF.

I believe trauma lives in dramatic life-changing moments that we never dared to imagine. The news of my infertility left me completely and utterly heartbroken.

I had no clue that life's most common miracle would be my greatest ever challenge. My future as a mother was now at the mercy of laboratory long shots.

Watch: Mary Coustas shares her IVF journey with her Unleashed cohosts. Post continues below.

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IVF JOURNEY

By 2009, I was 45, my egg quality was fading, and we had unsuccessfully been trying IVF attempt after IVF attempt.

But then, in December 2010, a blood test confirmed I was pregnant. After years of trying, I finally got the news I had been praying for.

The first scan was pure magic. Two beating hearts. Fraternal twins, an "instant family." But two weeks later, the room shifted. The doctor's face went pale.

"There are... three heartbeats," he said. I'd spent years struggling to conceive, and now I was pregnant with triplets.

But the joy was short-lived. Two of the babies were identical, sharing a placenta, creating a high-risk "mass effect" that threatened to trigger premature labour.

Five doctors gave us the same clinical ultimatum: Reduce the twins. Protect the singleton.

It was the hardest decision of our lives but we made it.

Week 19 we found out we were having a girl. We were ecstatic. I'd always wished for a girl.

Two weeks later my waters broke. I was immediately hospitalised. Somehow I held on for a further two weeks.

The morning after Mother's Day, I woke up in my hospital bed knowing without a doubt that this was the day history would be written for my family. No amount of optimism could argue with my instincts.

By 5pm that afternoon, the contractions started. My brilliant obstetrician was called in. He told me that my daughter was still alive but that she didn't have the lung capacity to survive the birth.

Devastated and utterly broken by the reality I found myself in, I still somehow pushed with everything I had left, and there she was.

My daughter Stevie. Tiny, perfect, staggering in her beauty arrived into our world lifeless. It was the crush of a lifetime. She was immediately placed on my chest, and I knew I could not love anything more than I loved her.

In six months, I had gone from none, to having two, to three, to one, and again to none. How do you survive something that cruel?

Stevie Betsis - May 2011 - 23 weeks old. Image: Supplied.

All up, I did 15 rounds of IVF in Australia, and another eight in Greece.

By the time I reached my 22nd attempt, I was at the lowest point of my life. I was subterraneous. I was in Greece on my own, screaming into a pillow and crying every night. I had run out of hope, and that is the worst feeling in the world.

My mother, seeing my despair, begged me to go to Tinos, an island next to Mykonos with a church famous for miracles. We had been there just before I got pregnant with Stevie.

She said, "We went there last time, and it worked. It will work again. Just get on your feet, take the ferry, and pray. Promise me."

I went. In that church, you see these little pressed metal symbols called tamata hanging from the altar. You buy the one that represents what you're trying to achieve, fertility, health, a miracle, and you leave it there.

Listen: Mary Coustas shares her IVF journey with her Unleashed co-hosts. Post continues below.

I'm not particularly religious, but I prayed. I did what she asked.

Before my 23rd attempt, a friend took me to see an Egyptian healer in a suburb of Athens. My friend warned me that he'd rejected people before if he got a negative vibe. I thought, Great, now I've got a door bitch to deal with.

He took us into a tiny room and he and my friend started chain-smoking. He didn't know my name. I just said, "I want to have a child. I've been trying for almost a decade."

He asked if there was a man involved. I showed him a photo of George. He looked at it and said, "He's already got a child out of wedlock." Which was true.

Then he looked at me and said, "You are going to have a daughter on this next attempt. She'll be very healthy. Everything is going to be corrected."

He talked about how the "angels speak in numbers" and told me to call him the night before the embryo transfer so he could do his "magic," and so I did.

On April Fool's Day, I found out I was pregnant. I rang my mother in Melbourne, and she didn't believe me at first. She said, "Are you tricking me?"

"No," I said. "I'm not tricking you."

Twice I went to that church, and twice I got pregnant. The only two times in 23 attempts.

Mary and her friends and family at the church in Greece for Jamie's christening. Image: Supplied.

I'm not saying that flying to Greece is the answer for everyone facing fertility struggles. But spirituality got me through one of the most difficult periods of my life.

I believe that if the universe delivers you a miracle, you have to offer something back. I promised that if she arrived safely, I would return to that church to christen her.

And that's what we did. Seventy-two of us went back to Tinos.

I was going to give up after attempt 22. But I thank god, the universe, mother nature and the chain-smoking Egyptian in Athens, that I didn't.

Because that 23rd attempt, that 'one more" is Jamie, the daughter I hold today.

Mary with Jamie in 2013. Image: Supplied.

Mary Coustas is an Australian comedian, actress, author and host of Unleashed , Mamamia's podcast for Gen X women who want a laugh.

If you or anyone you know would like to speak with an expert, please contact the SANDS Australia 24-Hour Support Line (1300 072 637).

Feature Image: Supplied.