For Lauren and Jon Phillips, the journey to parenthood was a challenging path fraught with emotional hurdles. However, amidst their struggle, a glimmer of hope emerged that would eventually light the way to a joyous new chapter in their lives.
Residing in Des Moines, Iowa, the couple welcomed their son, Jaxon Phillips, into the world just four weeks ago. But Jaxon’s story is not merely about his birth 10 days before Christmas; rather, it’s a testament to perseverance and the triumph over adversity.
Back in 2023, Lauren and Jon embarked on their quest to start a family. Their aspiration, however, was met with unexpected challenges, prompting them to seek assistance at the University of Iowa Healthcare Infertility Clinic.
“When you’re confronted with unexplained infertility, it’s incredibly frustrating because you just want answers,” Lauren shared, encapsulating the emotional toll of their journey.
In 2024, their efforts included rounds of medications, yet these attempts proved unsuccessful. By 2025, they turned to intrauterine insemination (IUI), a prevalent treatment for infertility. Despite their hopes, the first few months of the year saw multiple unsuccessful rounds.
“That’s when IVF was suggested to us,” Lauren recounted. “We scheduled a consultation for April 13, though we knew we still had a few more rounds of IUI to explore.”
IVF stands for in vitro fertilization, which is one of the two most common infertility therapies. As they geared up for another appointment, Lauren and Jon stumbled across something that wasn’t a procedure. It was a superstition.
“The superstition is to eat McDonald’s fries the day of your transfer, and then it’s supposed to bring you good luck,” Lauren said. “While we weren’t going through IVF, we were like, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’”
They both ate fries after their third round of IUI. Shortly after, on April 9, a pregnancy test showed two lines. While the couple knew it wasn’t really the fries that brought their baby into the world, that didn’t matter.
“When you go through something like this, you will literally try anything,” she said. “Eventually, our appointments ended up on Fridays, and so we called them our Fry Fridays, and we never missed going to McDonald’s together.”
Fry Fridays eventually turned into a fry birthday because, after their son was born, they went through the drive-thru and ordered their good-luck fries.
While it may seem small, Lauren and Jon aren’t the only ones who turn to things like this.
“You feel like you don’t have a lot of control,” said Sarah Crouse, a mental health counselor at Honey Sage Wellness, a practice that helps women through life transitions. “When you lean into something like that, it just gives you a sense of agency and a sense of feeling like ‘Hey, I’m doing something.’”
Eating “good luck” fries is just one of the many rituals couples might practice while struggling through infertility. Although there’s little to no evidence that these superstitions actually work, things like wearing warm socks or eating the core of a pineapple are often turned to when it seems like everything else isn’t working.
“When the mental health professionals do their stress scales and they measure couples that are working in my world and struggling with fertility, they score the same as if one of the partners has cancer,” said Dr. Brian Cooper, a reproductive endocrinologist at Mid-Iowa Fertility. “It is literally that stressful.”
The number of those couples is going up. Dr. Cooper said his field used to quote 1 in 8 couples have trouble conceiving. Now, that has jumped to 1 in 6. He told Local 5 in Iowa he’s watched sperm and egg counts drop for decades, even in younger people.
When it comes to superstitions, Dr. Cooper weighs these two factors with his patients.
“What’s the risk, what’s the benefit?” he said. “When the benefit is questionable, if there is minimal to no risk, sure, why not?”
For Lauren and Jon, fries made sense for them because the benefit wasn’t physical. It was mental.
“This is a little fun thing that gave us some hope,” Jon said. “By no means are we saying that would work for everyone, but it was our way of getting through those tough times together.”
Jaxon can’t understand his parents now, but in a few years, his parents will tell him about the many fries they consumed.
“I get so emotional,” Lauren said. “Because when you want something so bad in your life, and then it’s here, it’s just such a blessing.”
