The gift of life
Natasha Dalziel has three children – three ‘‘gifts’’ born from sperm donation – so as she sees it, she owes three gifts in return.
The 30-year-old from Te Awamutu has donated her eggs to help a couple conceive, and is currently 16 weeks pregnant as a surrogate for a gay couple, all in the name of ‘‘paying it forward’’.
Five years ago, Dalziel and her then-wife walked into a fertility clinic for the first time.
Then 25 years old, she joined a waiting list for a donor, before finding the match that gave her her son Jacob, now 4, 12 months later. Two years later she had twins Oralee and Joseph to the same donor.
What the donor looks like is a ‘‘mystery’’, as all three of her children look different to one another and to her.
What she does know is ‘‘what he did is huge’’.
‘‘When I made the decision to marry my wife, I didn’t think I would ever be a mother,’’ Dalziel said. About 300 people are currently waiting for a sperm donor, according to Fertility Associates. Looking at her children, Dalziel said she felt like ‘‘she had to do something’’.
‘‘I couldn’t take without giving . . . it would feel wrong if I didn’t.’’
So last November, Dalziel went through the process to become an egg donor. One of her eggs has been used for a couple who ‘‘had been trying for ages’’. That woman is now 24 weeks pregnant.
She wanted to do more, so Dalziel made the life-changing step to become a surrogate. After months of counselling through Fertility Associates she ‘‘put it out there’’ and found a ‘‘really cool couple’’ through a friend.
‘‘I call what I’m carrying my little koha.’’
Once her surrogacy is over and she’s taken some time out to recover, Dalziel plans to donate eggs one more time — one final good deed to settle the score.
Her life has irrevocably been changed by a stranger’s generosity, something she said she will forever be grateful for.
‘‘Someone walked into a clinic one day, with no intentions, not wanting any money out of it, and donated, it completely changed my life. That person is never going to know . . . what they did was to give me hope.’’