IVF clinics around the country are reporting a significant increase in single women taking up their services.
More and more single women are making the choice to become solo parents. As fertility deadlines approach, a new generation of women aren’t prepared to wait forever for 'Mr Right' to come along and risk missing out on the opportunity to have a child if a partner doesn’t arrive in time.
Forty-one year old Anita Fox is typical of a number of professional women who've decided in their late thirties to have a baby without a partner. After a divorce, Anita didn’t want another relationship - but did want a baby - and she’s now a proud mother of two year-old Grace.
Stephanie Holt, at 26, decided she didn't want to wait to meet the right man to be the father of her children, and embarked on IVF treatment to become a solo mum. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
“My twin sister and I were in and out of foster care,” she tells Insight. “I needed to have a family to fill the hole that I missed out growing up in.”
And it’s not only women choosing to solo parent. A growing number of men are also choosing pursue parenthood alone. This new technology has also allowed LGBTQI-identifying people more freedom to pursue parenthood. Anthony Stralow had his now five year-old daughter and a set of 14 month-old twins via surrogacy.
“We are seeing a steady growth in the number of single women who access IVF,” Associate Professor Peter Illingworth, IVF Australia's Medical Director, tells Insight.
Assoc. Professor Illingworth says today we are seeing more women who are in career positions that may not accommodate starting a family early in life.
“I think the other factor [is that] there is much wider acceptance and respect for different types of families now,” he says. “The stigma is vanishing.”
These solo parents are also facing a number of moral dilemmas with their decision, like how to negotiate contact with sperm or egg donors; raising a kid as a single parent; and what to do with leftover embryos.
