Nada: A lesson in love 

G’day, my humble hero for today is Nada!

Nada works as a fitness instructor at our local gym. She was in her fifties so you can imagine my surprise when I noticed the unmistakable pregnancy bump but none of my business so left it at that. Then Nada took pregnancy leave and I didn’t see her for many months. But this is her story as she conveyed it to me.

Two years earlier Nada had learnt that her daughter couldn’t have any children due to M.R.K.H. Syndrome, her uterus was not fully formed. However, as her daughter had viable eggs, an option was surrogacy.

But they didn’t dare trust an overseas surrogate and Nada’s research indicated that post menopausal women can become surrogates so she contacted the IVF clinic and they agreed to take her on.

Then began the long and arduous journey across a 2-year period preparing Nada’s uterus with estrogen and progesterone so her uterus could carry the embryo, and of course they had to go through the legal and psychological hoops before a contract was drawn up.

Then began the long process of extracting 7 eggs, 5 of which were successfully created into embryos using her son in laws semen.  Due to the external semen use, these embryos needed to be quarantined for a period of 4 months in case of any infectious diseases.

So they selected the most viable embryo and then had to wait 10 long days to see whether the transfer had been a success. It was! Can you imagine Nada’s feelings that not only was she carrying her own grandchild but the overwhelming realization that she was helping to create a family which may not have been possible if it wasn't for her. 

The night before the due date, Nada and daughter bunkered down in the hospital ready for inducement.  To their relief and delight the baby was born hale and hearty and daughter and husband now had a family,

But not content with that 10 months later the family repeated the exercise and another healthy little sister was born. 

It’s not quite a fairy tale ending because her daughter and family live far away in a large country town. But she does see them and they are still gob-smacked at the whole exercise and its life giving outcome. I’m sure Nada could have got this incredible story into magazines and top rating TV shows but Nada is a true humble hero, she just says it was literally a labour of love! Wow, welcome Nada to the Humble Heroes Hall of Fame.