More and more same sex couples are planning to have children and the issue is one surrounded by controversy. Rachel Roberts speaks to an expectant couple to find out more.
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ouples can either adopt, foster or women can conceive by artificial insemination (IUI) which is not only expensive, it also has low success rates. But this didn’t put off civil partners Nikki and Katie Chappory, and the mummys-tobe are expecting the birth of their daughter next year. “We’ve always wanted to start a family together” says Nikki. “We talked about it a lot and Katie was always going to give birth. Labour looks a bit painful to me and after watching Desperate Midwives this has definitely been confirmed!” The couple who celebrated their first civil partnership in October, first began trying for a baby in May after being referred by their GP and Katie is due to give birth on February 18, 2011. “The whole artificial insemination process (IUI) has to be done through your GP,” explains Katie. “Only your GP can refer you and you to be honest, ours was useless and didn’t have a clue. “But luckily for Nikki and I we had researched it on the internet and our friend had been through the IUI process, so we knew a lot about it and ended up changing our GP.” The couple were then referred by their GP to Manchester Fertility Services at Bridgewater Hospital and the pair can’t thank them enough. “The staff at Bridgewater Hospital were absolutely fantastic and made the whole process really easy,” says Katie. “They went through my whole medical history and were very thorough. We had counselling too because one of our biggest worries was Nikki not feeling close to the baby because she’s not pregnant and also the baby wanting to contact her sperm donor in later
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life. But the staff put our minds at ease and counselling really did help.”
So just how did Nikki and Katie pick their sperm donor? “We first met up with Professor Lieberman who is one of the leading fertility specialists in the country and talked about the characteristics Katie and I both have, and what characteristics we want the baby to have,” adds Nikki. “These results were then sent off to a laboratory where two donors were chosen for us to pick from. It was a big decision and after reading through both profiles we picked our sperm donor
Photo: Getty Images
We talked about it a lot and Katie was always going to give birth. Labour looks a bit painful to me and after watching Desperate Midwives this has definitely been confirmed!