A SINGLE mother has revealed the benefits of raising her children alone after having a baby with an anonymous sperm donor.
Author Genevieve Roberts, from London, who divorced her husband at the age of 30, discovered she needed to act fast if she wanted to have a baby after undergoing fertility tests.
Genevieve Roberts
The mum-of-two was encouraged to use a sperm donor and IVF treatment in order to conceive, and now not only has one-year-old daughter Astrid, but she’s eight-months pregnant with her second baby.
Raising her children solo, Genevieve penned a memoir about her experience called Going Solo: My Choice to Become a Single Mother, explaining why being single has made her a better parent.
While becoming a single parent was never her dream when she was younger, she says she’s totally happy with the decision she made and ‘would not do it differently.
She told the Mail Online, “For I have chosen to go solo, like an increasing number of new mothers. Every decision I’ve made since becoming pregnant via sperm donor is mine, and every decision I will go on to make, is one I make alone.”
Genevieve Roberts
Numbers of single women opting for IVF treatment has increased by 35 per cent since 2014, and Genevieve is just one of thousands giving birth via donor.
Even Cheryl Cole, single mother to two-year-old Bear from her former relationship with One Direction star Liam Payne, has admitted considering having a baby via a sperm donor.
While she admits that parenting alone can be hard, and the cost of IVF treatment, which many single women don’t qualify for on the NHS, is hefty – she claims it makes her a better mum.
Genevieve says there’s a ‘simplicity’ to being a solo parent as there’s no partner to worry about neglecting, and therefore does not have to worry about how parenthood affects her relationships.
Genevieve Roberts
And with nobody to ‘lose’, the single mum puts all her energy into raising her daughter and preparing herself for her second birth, expected this spring.
“Of course there are times when I wish for an extra hand, and some days are really hard and I wish someone could help” she added. “But I feel that Astrid and I are completely tied together.”
She says her daughter is the ‘best thing she’s ever done’, and describes her days with the one-year-old as ‘simply magical’.
Genevieve found out at 37, seven years after her divorce, that her fertility levels were not just low but at minimal levels, leaving her no choice but to act quickly if she wanted children.
It was then that she paid a round of artificial insemination, which costs almost £2,000, in order to conceive Astrid, having found a donor who sounded like a match.
Genevieve is confident that she will always be ‘open and honest’ with her children about how they came into the world, and is confident her nephews and male friends can be role models in their lives.
Astrid will be allowed to get in touch with her donor father after she turns 18, something which Genevieve will support and encourage her daughter in.
Genevieve Roberts
Genevieve is currently pregnant with a baby boy, which she struggled to conceive following five rounds of artificial insemination and gruelling IVF.
“I am expecting my son to join our family in a month,” she concluded. “I know that being outnumbered will be tricky at times, but I’m up for the challenge.”
And while she recognises that a ‘relationship will come along in its own time’, she wants people to know that she’s ‘content’ to be single and focusing on her children.
“I know we’re surrounded by love, just not of the most conventional sort,” she concluded.
Genevieve’s book Going Solo: My Choice to Become a Single Mother, is available now for £13.99.
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