This mum has an incredible birth story to tell her twin babies when they get older, as they were conceived using sperm from a stranger she met on Facebook.
Canadian Sarah Mangat, 34, had been single for nearly eight years when she decided to embark on solo motherhood in July 2020.
She had planned to use a sperm bank but found the process ‘too impersonal’, so instead found a Facebook group for donors.
After hitting it off with someone, Sarah underwent 14 months of fertility tests at Victory Reproductive Health Fertility Clinic, Ontario, where staff medically monitored her cycle and inseminated when the time was right.
Not only had she fallen pregnant on the very first go, she was shocked to learn she was expecting twins.
Despite her joy, though, Sarah had a difficult pregnancy and was told her short cervix could cause premature birth or miscarriage.
Doctors performed a cervical stitch to stop it opening too soon, but the procedure failed after two weeks and Sarah went into premature labour in April 2022.
Her daughters, one-year-old Elora and Addison, arrived at 27 weeks on 30 April 2022 at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto.
Elora was born at 6.38pm weighing 2lb 2oz and Addison arrived shortly after at 6.42pm weighing 1lb 9oz.
The pair suffered a catalogue of health issues including a bleed on the brain, heart defects, jaundice, and infections.
Yet although the odds were stacked against them, after Elora spent 70 days in hospital and Addison was in for 79 days, they were all able to go home.
Sarah, an HR business partner from Toronto, said: ‘I had tried every dating app under the sun and wasn’t meeting someone.
‘You can’t wait forever for the right person to come into your life.
‘If you’re thinking about doing it alone, I say do it. It’s the best decision I ever made.’
She said that while she ‘nearly had a heart attack’ when they told her she was having two babies, she ‘can’t imagine [her] life without [her] daughters.’
Initially, Sarah wasn’t even sure if she wanted to be a mum, saying she enjoyed the freedom in her life and the ability to be ‘selfish’.
However, one day she woke up and felt the urge to have a baby, commenting: ‘It was so strange – like a flick switched and I was ready.’
Being single, Sarah looked at fertility clinics, but said she found them ‘too clinical’. That was when she came across a Facebook group called ‘Canadian Sperm Donors’.
‘At the sperm bank, you can only meet them when your child turns 18,’ she said. ‘But I wanted to know the person before that.
‘I was already becoming a mum unconventionally – why not find the donor myself?’
After speaking to a few different people, she connected well with one potential donor, and they met in person before he underwent STI checks and genetic tests.
‘Of course, I was a bit wary of meeting someone from online,’ said Sarah. I had a few weird messages.’
But when she met the man who would end up fathering her children (in a public place) she knew it was the right choice.
‘We actually became quite good friends because he stuck with me through all my fertility issues,’ added the mum.
A number of medical procedures followed, with Sarah spending £5,000 on injections to increase her chances of conception. The first transfer in November 2021 was a success, but she experiences severe cramps which led to an early ultrasound and the discovery of twins.
Sarah explained: ‘I was so delighted, but first trimester was terrible.
‘I was so nauseous and barely able to keep any food down. I survived on French fries for weeks.’
Doctors found issues with her cervix at 20 weeks, telling Sarah that despite efforts to delay labour, her babies could arrive at any time.
‘The doctor asked me if I’d want them to try and save the babies lives or just provide “comfort care” which was support if the babies didn’t make it,’ said Sarah.
‘I asked them to do anything they could to save them. Every day I was talking to my bump begging them to stay in longer.’
At 26 weeks Sarah went to the bathroom and saw a toilet ‘full of blood,’ – she’d gone into labour and was rushed to hospital.
36 hours later, the twins were born and taken to a prenatal ward where medics fought to save their lives.
‘They were so tiny. Literally all skin and bone – they looked like aliens,’ she said.
‘Both of them were wrapped in plastic to stay warm. I later found out that Addison had to be resuscitated which was terrifying.’
The twins both had grade 1 bleeds on the brain, heart defects requiring blood transfusions, and underdeveloped lungs that means they needed to be on breathing machines.
Elora also developed a blood infection and a UTI during her stay in hospital.
Sarah said: ‘Every day I left the hospital at 5pm and go home to an empty house.
‘That was a difficult part about doing it by myself. I couldn’t comfort them when they cried.’
She also credits her mum Jane, 63, for supporting her during those crucial first few weeks, where Sarah was allowed to hold one baby at a time for a few hours a day.
After a long health battle, though, the twins defied the odds and were able to go home, and they now have to wear helmets due to their flattened heads but are otherwise doing great.
‘It’s really important to share my NICU journey – it was very traumatic,’ said Sarah. ‘I know a lot of parents have been through this.’
She added: ‘I still have hard moments as one person with two babies. But I also have very wonderful moments.
‘It’s so true what people say – the days are long, and the year are short.
‘They’re a year old now and I can’t believe they’re mine.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
MORE : I took a ten-week-old baby on holiday to a Cornish farm – here’s how it went
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