Henry Okafor
Manda Epton, 54-year-old, from Sydney, Australia, spent over $53,528 on multiple rounds of ⒾⓋⒻ before welcoming her twin daughters in August 2018. In the 11 years Manda Epton was going through fertility treatments, she never l.ost hope that she would one day become a mother. Twin newborn as a result of her infertility struggles, Manda says she now makes the most of every single second with her girls, unlike the younger mums she sees scrolling on their phones. Going ahead on her own meant between the ages of 39 and 45 she would spend a staggering $75,000 on fertility treatment. When she first looked at the possibility of becoming a mother via ⒾⓋⒻ she believed there was nothing holding her back. Doctors told her from the outset she had a five percent chance of falling pregnant, her age meant the quality of her eggs was diminished.
Despite , in the decade where Manda was trying to have a baby, she went through two and a half rounds of ⒾⓋⒻ – but the third was canceled due to ovarian hyperstimulation, which is an exaggerated response to hormones. The mom fell pregnant twice but sadly l.ost both at eight weeks. After this, she had 13 drug assisted fertility treatments and miscarried a third time. She added: “I struggled with the miscarriages and part of me wanted to give up at points, but I really wanted children of my own. I even thought about adoption, but the waiting list was seven years, and single women were at the bottom of the list.” In 2017, the mom traveled to Cape Town for a double donor embryo transfer which resulted in her successful twin pregnancy.
She said:” I got to choose the donors and gotta shop around. I come from a blonde hair and blue eyes background so chose a lovely egg donor from South Africa and gotta shop around for a sperm donor, eventually choosing one from denmark. I spent $10,835 at the clinic and had two embryos transferred, as it was my final chance and I really wanted at least one of them to be successful. I was in stirrups like Bridget Jones during the procedure.” and seven weeks later, after returning home to Australia, she was delighted to be given the news she was expecting twins. She added: “I was quite s.ick for the first five months of the pregnancy and had non-stop vomiting, and being an older woman, I had a lot of injections to help me along too. But both my girls came out perfectly happy and healthy.”
In August 2018, after a pregnancy that ran fairly smoothly, her twin girls were born via C-Section. The new mom says support from family and friends has made things much easier. Her parents help take care of the girls once a week and there’s also another close friend who is now caring for the girls twice a week so she can return to work.
