Katie Foster recently welcomed her daughter thanks to winning a Facebook contest earlier this year.
The second-time mom, 37, and her husband Jon won a contest to receive a free round of IVF. Before entering the contest on a whim, the couple had received one round of IVF that was covered by insurance. Unfortunately, that round was unsuccessful, and they were not able to afford any other rounds without paying out of pocket.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 39-Year-Old Woman’s Lucky Lottery Win Gives Her the Opportunity of a Lifetime: To Become the Mother She’s Always Wanted to Be
Woman delivers healthy baby after winning a round of IVF through Facebook contest.
The couple tried two more rounds, paying more than $20,000 themselves. Fortunately, they were able to conceive their son, Elijah, from those rounds.
However, due to a medical condition making it nearly impossible for Foster to conceive naturally, they knew they would need additional IVF to conceive a second child.
“There was a lot to consider when it came to spending the money,” Foster told The Daily Mail. “As we had a child now, I had gone part-time at work and we had the added costs of childcare. Our chances of conceiving were not great so we didn’t know if we could go through the heartache of trying and it not working.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: 73-Year-Old Indian Woman Becomes First-Time Mom After Giving Birth to Twins
But soon a friend had tagged her in a contest being run by local fertility website IVF Babble. The company was offering eight free rounds of IVF paid for by the Fertility Partnerships organization in the UK.
Foster was thrilled to get an email three months later saying she had won.
“I thought someone must be spamming me and it couldn’t be real,’ she said. ‘I just didn’t believe it. It took a few days and the clinic phoning me to confirm before it sunk in,” she said.
They received IVF from Nurture Fertility. The couple were concerned that it wouldn’t work, and were thrilled when they got a positive pregnancy result. Their daughter, Abigail, was born in October healthy as can be.
“We joke about her being our ‘free baby’. Obviously she was very much wanted and we would have found a way to have her somehow but to ‘win’ her was just amazing. We couldn’t wish for a better gift for Christmas and cannot thank the clinic and IVF Babble enough for making our dreams come true. Words can’t describe how it feels to have completed our family,” she told the Daily Mail.
Mamas Uncut is THE online place for moms. We cover the latest about motherhood, parenting, and entertainment as well – all with a mom-focused twist. So if you're looking for parenting advice from real parents, we have plenty of it, all for moms from moms, and also experts. Because, at the end of the day, our mission is focused solely on empowering moms and moms-to-be with the knowledge and answers they’re looking for in one safe space.