'It was heartbreaking to attend a fertility appointment in a maternity unit'

'It was heartbreaking to attend a fertility appointment in a maternity unit'Image caption, Niamh Smyth said she was shocked to find out where she had been directed to go when looking for the gynaecology departmentByEvie McKinneyBBC News NI PublishedJust nowA 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'Published30 June'Emotional' day as first baby loss certificates applied for in NIPublished23 JuneMother and baby mental health unit to go aheadPublished30 AprilShe described sitting alongside expectant parents and families before receiving difficult news about her fertility."It was heartbreaking," she added."I went in for my appointment, which was a hard appointment, and then had to walk back out past those families."The South Eastern Trust, where Smyth was treated, said it hopes to relocate outpatient gynaecology services from the Ulster Hospital's maternity unit in the coming months.Smyth said that it was not until after the appointment when she started to think about her experience, thinking she could...