What are your thoughts on this article? More Victorian women are choosing to have babies on their own rather than wait for the perfect life partner to come along. Last January, Nicolette Sampson* was seated in front of a spreadsheet, tapping in the costs of IVF treatment. Sampson, then aged 40, had had five unsuccessful IVF cycles and was considering seeking an egg donor - but was concerned about the potential costs. As she added up the numbers, the phone rang. It was the clinic: her sixth attempt had worked. She was pregnant. I closed that spreadsheet and started working out what the costs of prams and cots were, Sampson laughs. In the morning I was spreadsheeting egg donors, in the afternoon I was spreadsheeting nursery furniture. Eight weeks ago, she gave birth to her daughter, a gorgeous child with bee-stung lips - which Sampson attributes to the childs father, an anonymous sperm donor. Sampson is one of a growing number of women using donor sperm to achieve their dream of becoming a mother and having a child. Since the law changed in Victoria in 2010, allowing single women and lesbian couples to access IVF, the number of women using sperm donors to try to conceive has quadrupled. In the last financial year, 1901 Victorian women were treated, up from 452 women in 2008-09, according to figures from the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority. Louise Johnson, VARTAs chief executive, echoes many others who say the rise reflects a growing acceptance of different kinds of families - that its not who makes up a family or how the family is created, but what the child receives in terms of love and care. But what makes a woman decide to go it alone? When is the time right? And what role should, or could, a donor play in a childs life? Sampson, now 41, says up until her mid-30s she thought shed have a husband, kids, a Labrador and a picket fence. But in her late 30s she realised it might not happen that way. Link to article in comments section.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 03:03:24 +0000
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