'I had 6 rounds of IVF to have my precious kids. I'm scared one might not be mine.'

When Lucy* and her husband started trying for a family, they knew from the start they might have to turn to assisted reproduction. Lucy had just turned 38 and the fertility tests she took soon after would prove her suspicions right; she had a low egg count alongside low levels of the Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH), which is produced by the follicles in the ovaries.

So she, like many other mothers before her, turned to in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

The road to building her family was filled with hurdles. There were three unsuccessful rounds. More tests, until a laparoscopy found she had stage four endometriosis. The lesions were removed and the next round of IVF would give her everything she ever wanted; her son.

Six months after her boy was born, she started trying, via IVF, for a second child.

Three rounds later she got pregnant, again.

Lucy, from Victoria, is now the proud mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy and a six-month-old daughter.

But her happiness has been marred by a "niggle" at the back of her mind. That niggle is due to news of multiple embryo mix-ups, involving Monash IVF, one of Australia's largest fertility providers. As reported by ABC, IVF campaigners are now pushing for federal regulation and DNA tests for children born through assisted-reproduction.

Listen to The Quicky discuss the IVF mixups. Post continues below.

Although her children were born with the assistance of another clinic, Lucy is concerned.

"We ended up with a boy and a girl, and we didn't find out (the gender) with either of them," Lucy told Mamamia.

"My second didn't look like anyone, but she didn't not look like anyone if that makes sense. A couple of times I have said, 'who do you belong to?', because she does look different.

"This little rosy-skinned baby really doesn't look like either of us, maybe a tiny bit. When the first story broke we would kind of joke about it like 'whose baby are you?' All the while thinking, 'of course, she's ours'.

"But it's still something in the back of my mind every day because they do change so quickly; 'who do you look like today'."

Lucy said she feels "silly" thinking this way, she loves her daughter "to bits" and is so connected to her.

But with the news of multiple mistakes at Monash IVF, that seed of doubt has been planted.

And Lucy is terrified by the prospect of taking a DNA test.

"I would just be so scared to find out she wasn't genetically ours, because once you know that information you have to find out who her genetic parents (are)," she said.

"That opens us up to what happens, and who she belongs to, and any risk that means she might not end up with us is incomprehensible.

"It makes me upset to even think about."

Lucy added that she would seriously consider DNA testing "down the track" when her daughter is a bit older, depending on what she looks like.

"Babies change so much, and it's still only a small niggle; she's only six-months-old," she said.

"I do think I'm overreacting."

The mother believes the industry as a whole needs greater regulation to stop mistakes like the ones made by Monash IVF from happening again.

"We're paying tens of thousands of dollars, and I get that they're busy and there's a lot going on, but when you're dealing with human DNA and life, I just think it needs to be foolproof," she said.

"It's not silly we feel like this. Of course, we feel like this. There needs to be something done so we can 100 per cent know that our babies are our babies."

Emily* shares Lucy's concerns. Her wife and herself "have two Monash IVF kids" — two little boys.

"They're such carbon copies of us, it would be impossible to think they were anyone else but us, but I'd be lying if I said this situation didn't make me nervous," she told Mamamia.

"We pay so much to do IVF and then store our frozen embryos and sperm … To think mistakes could happen is definitely a big concern, especially when you're potentially using donor sperm like us and the kids could grow up not resembling us at all. We'd be none the wiser.

"In saying that, I am empathetic to human error. We are all human … And for what it's worth, we have found Monash to be brilliant in every experience we've had with them, so this terrible error isn't indicative of the whole business.

"My boys are my boys regardless of DNA."

What did Monash IVF do.

Last week, Monash IVF announced it had mistakenly transferred the wrong embryo into a patient.

It's the second time in two months such a mistake has come to light.

The most recent error occurred on June 5 at a Melbourne clinic. In this instance, the patient's own embryo was "incorrectly transfered" rather than their partner's.

"The patient's own embryo was incorrectly transferred to that patient, contrary to the treatment plan which designated the transfer of an embryo of the patient's partner," an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) said.

"Monash IVF has extended its sincere apologies to the affected couple, and we continue to support them."

In April, it was revealed a Brisbane patient had been implanted with a stranger's embryo and had given birth to that child. Mamamia understands the incident took place in 2023.

Watch how IVF is supposed to work. Post continues after video.

The fertility company became aware of the mix-up in February this year and issued an apology.

In the wake of last week's news, Monash IVF chief executive, Michael Knaap, has resigned.

But the mistakes have led to a growing chorus for more regulations.

Victorian Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, called last week's mix-up "completely unacceptable".

And journalist and fertility commentator, Amelia Oberhardt, is concerned the mistakes are just the tip of the iceberg.

"These back-to-back mistakes prove our fertility industry is still not being held to the standards would-be parents deserve. We need stronger regulation and we need real repercussions when things go wrong," Amelia said.

"If these mistakes are happening now, with all the modern checks and balances in place, how many were missed in the past? With one in five Australians doing DNA testing, we're only just beginning to uncover the true scale of past failures. And if we can't even get it right here, how can families trust international surrogacy arrangements in countries with less oversight?

"This should act as a big wake-up call for the governments to start regulating and governing fertility practices in our country so that more people don't experience this type of heartache."

Mamamia has reached out to Monash IVF for comment.

*Names changed to protect identities.

Feature image: Getty.