Home And Away actress Emily Symons admits she'd "given up" hope of having a child of her own, after years of failed cycles of IVF.
But in 2015, the 51-year-old's dream of becoming a mother finally came true when she welcomed her son Henry Richard Francis Jackson with her then partner, Paul Jackson.
"I very much thought it couldn't happen and I was too old," she said.
Read this next
.png?width=384&height=237&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=middlecenter&quality=85)
"I thought it would be impossible but it isn't. I'd given up, really, I thought I had tried every avenue that was available to us. My advice is to not give up if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole process."
Adding of her heartache to try and conceive: "I spent a lot of my 30s being so anguished about not having a baby."
"But the flip side is that IVF can take over your life. It gets to the point where you're so desperate to have a baby, everything else falls by the wayside."
With a high-risk, difficult pregnancy due to an issue with her placenta and blood pressure as a result of her age, Emily feared that Henry would be delivered prematurely. However, after being put on virtual bed-rest for the last few weeks of her pregnancy, Henry was delivered by caesarean at 38 weeks.
"I knew when I first visited the obstetrician that I would have a caesarean because of my age," Emily told Mother & Baby in 2017. "I didn't mind because it's taken me all these years to have a baby [and] as long as he was healthy, I didn't mind how he came out."
Having lost her own mother several years earlier, Emily credits Henry for helping in the grieving process.
"Watching Henry enjoy little things like going to the supermarket in the car has made me realise that it's these things that matter. I lost my mother in 2010 and I forgot how to be a happy person," she says.
"Henry has bought so much joy with him and he's really taught me how to enjoy my life again."
Keep scrolling as we round up Emily and Henry's sweetest moments!
![Emily shares Henry with her ex partner, Paul Jackson. [The couple sadly broke up in 2016](https://www.nowtolove.com.au/celebrity/celeb-news/home-and-aways-emily-symons-splits-from-long-term-partner-paul-jackson-24249|target="_blank") when Henry was 11 months old.](https://d3lp4xedbqa8a5.cloudfront.net/s3/digital-cougar-assets/now/2020/05/26/1590464115759_1469388848032Emily-symons-baby-2.jpg?width=690&height=&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=topcenter&quality=70)
![Henry is besites with [Emily's co-star Ray Meagher](https://www.nowtolove.com.au/celebrity/celeb-news/ray-meagher-why-hes-never-quit-home-and-away-44935|target="_blank") and we must admit, we're quite jealous.](https://d3lp4xedbqa8a5.cloudfront.net/s3/digital-cougar-assets/now/2020/05/26/1590464115763_1576712276457rayhenry.jpg?width=690&height=&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=topcenter&quality=70)
.jpg?width=170&height=105&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=middlecenter&quality=85)
.jpg?width=170&height=105&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=middlecenter&quality=85)
.jpg?width=170&height=105&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=middlecenter&quality=85)
-(1).jpg?width=170&height=105&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=middlecenter&quality=85)
.jpg?width=170&height=105&mode=crop&scale=both&anchor=middlecenter&quality=85)
