A woman has given birth to a baby boy after spending £4k on her first attempt of solo IVF treatment using a stranger’s sperm and says her dream of starting a family has come true.
Danielle Buttle, 31, had always hoped to become a mum and decided to take the plunge – using a sperm donor – when she still hadn’t found the right man when she turned 30.
After choosing her donor from a sperm bank, and Argentinian man, Danielle underwent her first round of IVF in November 2020 and was ecstatic to find out she was pregnant in December.
After a smooth pregnancy she gave birth to her baby boy, who she named Robin, now two months old, weighing 6lbs 15oz, at Lister Hospital, Stevenage, on 20th August, with her two sisters – Jasmine, 26, and Lianne, 33 – by her side as birthing partners.
Now she is in a ‘blissful bubble’ and enjoying being a mum – saying she ‘couldn’t be happier’ with her choice to go it alone.
Danielle, who runs a dance school, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, said: “I had always been obsessed with baby dolls and I’d always pretend to be pregnant in games with my sisters when we were young.
“I was starting to panic in the last few years that I hadn’t found ‘the one’ and I started joking about using a sperm donor and going it alone.
“But then I actually thought ‘well, why not?’ and looked into it.
“It was the best decision I ever made.
“Now I have a gorgeous baby boy and I just can’t stop staring at him.”
Danielle found the Facebook group ‘Single mums by choice’ and knew from there that having a baby by herself was definitely something she wanted to do.
After getting fertility tests, she was encouraged to try sooner rather than later as her AMH levels were low- which check your egg count.
“It felt right to do it,” she said.
“I knew I wanted to be a mum and luckily my family were all really supportive of my decision.”
Danielle picked out her sperm donor from a sperm bank, costing her £1,000 and started her IVF journey in November 2020 which cost an additional £3,000.
“I’m really indecisive but picking the sperm donor wasn’t as bad as I thought,” she said.
“You see pictures of the donor as a child and information about them and the one I picked seemed really sweet.
“He is 175cm, a slim build, has dark brown hair and brown-green eyes.
“It’s quite similar to my features but in the end, it was the way he came across as a genuine, caring person in his answers to questions that drew me to him.”
Danielle had her mum Carol’s help with the injections before she was then ready for her egg collection in December 2020.
“It was really nerve-wracking, then finding out how many eggs I had but I found out I had five fertilised and three of them made it from that,” she said.
Danielle then had an embryo transfer and had to wait 11 days until she could find out if it had worked or not – thankfully it worked.
“They phoned me and told me I was pregnant, and I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“It was the best Christmas present ever.
“My pregnancy ran smoothly with the cravings of oranges and ice lollies and I loved feeling my baby kick, roll and stretch in my tummy.”
But at 36 weeks Danielle started to get very thirsty and was told at 38 weeks that she had gestational diabetes.
She had to have a scan to check the size of the baby and was told he was only 5lbs and there wasn’t enough amniotic fluid around him.
Danielle had to be induced the next day and had to make a panicked call her sisters to make sure they were there for the day.
Luckily both Jasmine, 26, and Lianne, 33, got there just in time to be her birthing partners and Danielle gave birth to Robin on 20th August at Lister Hospital, Stevenage, weighing 6lb 15oz.
“Seeing him for the first time was so surreal,” Danielle said.
“My first night was scary but I’m in such a bubble of being a mum.”
“I don’t get anything done because I just stare at him.”
““I can’t believe he is mine.”