Rosanna Davison bravely opened up about her experience of infertility on last night’s Late Late Show.
Despite getting pregnant for the first time very quickly, Rosanna said she had a miscarriage at six and a half weeks. In total she revealed that she had fourteen miscarriages as she tried for a baby.
She said one of the hardest things for her was that friends and family would frequently ask her when she would stop working so hard and just settle down and have a baby.
Eventually, after many years of tests and doctors appointments she discovered that she had an immune disorder which was causing the miscarriages; “I was told my immune system was reacting to Wes’ DNA, seeing it as a foreign invader as it would a pathogen or a cancer cell and killing it. So essentially my body was killing my baby.”
Ryan went on to ask if this process put stress on her and Wes’ relationship;
“Certainly at the beginning but I think since we had an answer we were able to focus on a solution.”
Rosanna did say that she began to question “my role as a woman, I couldn’t do what my body was biologically designed to do, which is reproduce.”
Heartbreakingly she also revealed that “you do get to low points” and “there were a couple of times I tried to convince Wes to leave me and find another partner as I knew he was dying to have a baby.”
She also shared that “it’s a lonely traumatic experience” and that Mother’s Day and Christmas were the hardest as Christmas especially is so child focused.
As well as that, a friend or family member becoming pregnant was hard; “each pregnancy announcement you feel that pang of sadness for yourself.”
She tried so many different approaches to each of her pregnancies, steroids. medication and drips that it got to the point that she was jeopardising her heath. In the end her doctor suggested surrogacy, and idea she said she found “horrifying” at first.
When Ryan asked her why she said it was “the lack of control” and that “the idea of a stranger carrying your child in a other country is awful.”
The couple eventually went to Ukraine and “it took the guts of a year form when they began the surrogacy process to when they signed the contracts.” This was a long year of blood tests, immune test, egg retrieval and paperwork.
“I was so used to failure and so used to pregnancies not working that I couldn’t believe we’d be as lucky as to actually have a child out of this.”
Although they had absolutely no contact with their surrogate, they had access to scans and Rosanna did request a bump picture which she said brought up all sorts of emotions for her;
“I’m missing out on all the kicks and experiencing this pregnancy that I was dying to experience.”
Rosanna got particularly emotional when she spoke about the birth which her and her husband were present for;
“how can you prepare yourself for watching a stranger give birth to your child, it was just the most surreal, terrifying, emotional amazing experience.”
They named their little girl Sofia, after St Sofias Cathedral which they were staying beside in Kiev during the egg retrieval process.
When asked about why she decided to be so public with their surrogacy journey Rosanna said;
“we want to give hope and inspiration to other couples who are in our situation” and that “it’s a lonely road, a traumatic and difficult road for an awful lot of people.”
