'I Had Baby On My Own'

Melissa, 39, made her dream of starting a family a reality. This is her journey to motherhood

- Shari Nementzik

‘I WAS IN A LONG-TERM relationship that I thought was headed towards marriage and kids – something I’d always wanted. However, when that relationship ended, I gave up on that dream and went travelling for years, too devastated to put myself out there in another relationship. When I finally felt ready to get back into the dating world, the rules seemed to have changed, and I was clueless! I tried online dating, but it just didn’t feel like me – I wasn’t interested in going out all night partying by that stage in my life, so I rarely met anyone. Meanwhile, I was getting further away from what I truly wanted in life: a family.

I had loosely considered freezing my eggs but it wasn’t until I snapped my Achilles tendon a couple of years ago that I had a lot of time on my hands to reflect upon what I truly wanted from life. It was then that I started to seriously consider having a baby on my own. Even though I am lucky to have a lot of wonderful friends, they were getting busier with their own families and I was lonely, so I decided it was time.

I spent a good six months weighing up whether this was the right decision and whether it was going to be financially and emotionally possible for me to do it on my own. When I decided to go ahead, I also made the decision to put dating on hold indefinitely so I could focus on myself and making my baby dream come true.