One of the earliest conversations Shannon Crockett ever had with her husband Beau was about having a baby together. After trying to get pregnant for seven years with her ex-husband, Shannon was heartbroken - and knew she had to lay her cards on the table right at the beginning of her new relationship. 'When we got together in 2020, I told Beau my situation, and that my goal was to have a baby,' Shannon tells Daily Mail Australia. 'Straight up, he was on board. We were trying from the beginning.' The now 30-year-old had already been on a long, and painful journey in her attempts to become a mum. At just 18, knowing she was fighting against a Polycystic Ovary Syndrome diagnosis, Shannon starting trying to conceive with her ex-husband. The young NSW couple did ovulation induction cycles over six years in hopes of having a child. After what felt like 'hundreds' of negative pregnancy tests, they finally got a positive. 'It was so unexpected. We'd gone years without anything so to get a positive was overwhelming,' Shannon says. Sadly, the pregnancy wasn't to be. Days after telling their family the good news, Shannon had a miscarriage at six weeks' pregnant. 'Everything we had wished for was being ripped away,' she says. 'We were devastated. And it is so hard to try again. But when you want something so bad, you try and push past those feelings.' However, the grief was too much. The pressure of unexplained infertility was one of the reasons the couple's marriage ended. 'It was too hard, we were young, there wasn't much support,' Shannon says. In 2020, Shannon met Beau, and within a few months was trying again. 'I think every little girl has the dream of becoming a mum, it's all I've ever wanted,' Shannon says. 'I feel like I was born to be a mum, nothing else really matters.' The couple sought fertility treatment at two different clinics and countless reproductive specialists across the Albury and Wodonga region. They did ovulation induction cycles for three years. Early in 2023, the couple received good news. 'We had the six-week scan, and we could see a flicker of a heartbeat. It was so exciting,' Shannon says. 'We told our families straight away. All the hard work, the years, and tears, had paid off.' Shannon had ultrasounds every week to check her baby's growth, so nervous she cried at every appointment. 'I just wanted to make sure the baby was okay,' she says. All the prenatal testing came back normal and Shannon made it to the second trimester for the first time. 'There were nerves the whole pregnancy but once we reached 10 weeks, and found out we were having a boy, we started to feel like "okay, it's really happening",' she says. 'We brought everything, the pram, car seat, clothes, cot. We really thought this is it.' But at 16 weeks, two weeks after they announced their pregnancy to friends and posted about it on social media, their world stopped spinning. It was April 23, 2023, when Shannon started leaking fluid. Hospital staff told her to go to Wodonga Hospital Emergency Department (ED), rather than a maternity ward, as midwives only see patients after 20 weeks. Shannon was given a bedside ultrasound, and told her baby looked fine. 'The baby was moving a lot, but he looked in distress,' Shannon says. 'The doctor and nurse said, "look how cute he is". They couldn't get a heartbeat, but they could see the baby moving.' Shannon was given the all-clear to go home, and told to come back if she bled or lost more fluid. 'I questioned the way they did the scan,' she says. 'It wasn't a great reassurance, but we had a bit of hope he was OK.' The following morning, as she got out of bed, Shannon felt 'a big rush of water'. 'I went to the toilet and there was a 'pop'. My waters had fully broke,' Shannon says. The couple drove to Albury Hospital after being directed to emergency again. Here, Shannon received intravenous antibiotics, before returning to the ED waiting room to wait for a patient transfer to the nearby Wodonga Hospital. Shannon was in preterm labor and sat on a plastic chair for four hours. 'My waters had broken, I was 100 per cent scared,' she recalls. 'I was getting frustrated; we could tell something was wrong… we were visibly upset.' The distressed couple were finally on their way to Wodonga Hospital, but on arrival there was no rush to check on their baby. 'I went to the counter and said, "this is ridiculous, my waters have broken, something is wrong". I was told, "you are stable". That's all they were worried about.' 'I said, "I'm not here for me, I'm here for my unborn son".' At 4pm, Shannon had an ultrasound - six hours after her waters broke. The technician confirmed the news they had feared all day. Their baby wasn't going to make it. 'We were told, "the heart rate is low. He's alive but not moving". I had lost all my fluid.' Then came words the expectant couple will never forget. 'A doctor told us, "if we'd come in a few hours earlier, there was something they could have done". 'We just broke down and cried… we'd come in the day before.' While in shock from their loss, Shannon and Beau were moved to a delivery suite to prepare for a heart-shattering birth and farewell. 'The doctor checked the baby's head, he was ready to come out,' Shannon says. 'I was told I had to wait until my baby's heart stopped beating, otherwise it would be more traumatic to birth him if he was alive.' Nearly 12 hours after losing her waters, Shannon gave birth to baby Luca naturally. The new mum held her much longed-for son for 10 minutes, before doctors rushed her out for surgery on her placenta. 'We were told it was going to be 15 minutes. She was gone four hours,' Beau recalls of being left alone with no knowledge of his wife's condition. 'I was holding Luca, with no idea where Shannon was. I couldn't go and walk out with him – I could barely stand up anyway.' When Shannon returned, she felt relief when her eyes found Beau holding Luca. 'It was heartbreaking. But I'm glad my baby was still there and not taken away.' The midwives took handprints of Luca and weighed him, then left the couple to grieve. 'He was tiny, the size of our hand,' Shannon remembers. 'I held onto the side rail of his bassinet until the next morning.' They left the hospital, without a baby, in silence. 'My parents picked us up, and none of us said a word the entire ride home.' Shannon's traumatic experience and health issues didn't end there. Following months of relentless illness, and failed pregnancy attempts, Shannon had a procedure to check her fallopian tubes for blockages last year. During this procedure - 14 months after her loss - doctors performed an unplanned dilation and curettage (D&C), usually performed to clear out the uterine lining after a miscarriage. The cause of Shannon's persistent headaches and nausea was 'pregnancy matter' leftover from her birth a year earlier. 'I felt disgusted. I knew something was wrong and that was the reason. No one did a physical check on me after birth. It had been a year. To wait for that surgery… to find out I had leftover matter, was gross.' A spokeswoman for Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) said in a statement it respects the privacy of patients and is unable to discuss or confirm specific patient details. 'We extend our heartfelt condolences to Ms Crockett and her family following the tragic loss of her son, Luca,' she says. 'Albury Wodonga Health is committed to delivering safe, high-quality, and compassionate care throughout every stage of pregnancy.' Shannon and Beau have considered adoption, foster care, and had offers of surrogacy, but they haven't given up on their dream of a biological child. 'We're at breaking point… But I'm only 30, I still want to push to have a child myself,' she says. 'I've managed to hold onto hope because of Beau. He is the most supportive man and encourages me to stay positive. 'I just want to share my DNA with the man I love. Everyone around me gets to have this moment, so I want it too.' In December the couple engaged a new fertility specialist – three hours away in Melbourne. Undergoing treatment at an IVF clinic specialising in high-risk pregnancies has left Beau and Shannon facing astronomical fees. Having spent more than $20,000 on 16 ovulation inductions, appointments, surgeries and medication. The couple are now faced with a $19,000 bill for their first IVF cycle, plus travel costs and potential loss of income from their jobs in retail and mechanical work. 'We've been told to do two rounds, and if it doesn't work unfortunately that's it,' Shannon says. Despite the costs, Shannon is not giving up hope, and has set up a GoFundMe page to help with their costs to become parents. 'I want this so much I'm not willing to give up at all,' she says. 'I'll have a baby one way or another. One day I'll be a mum. 'We still have Luca's things packed up two years later… waiting for our rainbow baby.