Niomi Allen never believed that she would have a child of her own after being born without a womb.
But the 29-year-old from Wishaw, Lanarkshire has just become a mum to a baby girl thanks to an incredible surrogate who lives almost 400 miles away.
Niomi and husband Sam are the proudest of parents to five-week-old Eliana Katie who is genetically their child but carried by Katie Lochrie, a mum of two from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Little Eliana was born on July 27 with the couple in the delivery room alongside Katie’s husband Patrick.
Niomi said: “To watch her being born was the most miraculous thing I’d ever seen. It was like an out-of-body experience. To finally have my daughter in my arms was beyond words.
“Thirteen years ago I was told I’d never have a child. Now, thanks to Katie, I’m a mother at last.”
Niomi was just 16 when doctors discovered she had a syndrome called Mayer Rokitansky Küster Hauser (MRKH) and had been born without a womb.
MRKH syndrome affects one in 5,000 women. It meant that, while she’d been born with ovaries that produced eggs and female hormones, Niomi had never developed a cervix or uterus.
It was Niomi’s mum Carol who had suspected something wasn’t right when despite her daughter developing normally, her period never came. She insisted on the teenager seeing a specialist.
Niomi said: “From the age of 12, every time we were at the doctor’s, mum would ask why my periods hadn’t started.
She explained that she, my big sister and my grandma had all started their periods young. So why hadn’t I?”
“She and Dad refused to wait, they wanted answers.”
But after a scan, the news came as a huge shock to them all.
Niomi said: “It was all a blur. But one thing came through crystal clear – I wouldn’t ever be able to carry my own children. I dealt with it by telling myself it would all be fine. The doctor made me have one counselling session, but I just said I wanted to get back to school and be normal.
“I was too young to understand what it meant for my future. I simply said, ‘I can adopt’. I was so naive.”
Starting work at a nursery aged 18, Niomi was open about her diagnosis to friends but more than once a boyfriend would use her condition to insult her.
When she met Sam in 2015, he accepted it immediately. They were engaged a year later and married in July 2018.
Niomi said: “That’s when, seven years after my diagnosis, the reality of MRKH really hit.
“I’d found the man I loved but surrogacy was the only way to have our own biological child. I felt the enormity of it all.
“The rules say you can’t start fertility treatment until you already have a surrogate in place. But we wanted to know IVF would work for us first. It seemed the better way to avoid more delay and heartbreak.”
Once they had a viable embryo of their own, the couple joined online surrogacy groups, as well as attending in-person surrogacy meet-ups, researching everything they could about the
process. It was there they met a couple and their son and heard about their incredible surrogate – Katie.
In 2016 Katie had read a forum post online by a surrogate and thought she could do the same.
She said: “I’d had my two sons, then aged four and five, so easily,” the now 31-year-old said. If I had the ability to help someone else do the same, why wouldn’t I? My husband Patrick was on board and so, in 2017, I went for it.”
She became a gestational surrogate, carrying an embryo with no biological link to herself, for a couple who had wanted a child for over 20 years.
Katie said: “After two decades of trying I was eventually able to help a couple achieve their dreams. It was an amazing feeling.”
Niomi and Sam began chatting to Katie through the surrogacy Facebook group HOPE: Where becoming a parent begins and both sides felt an instant connection.
For two years Katie and Niomi built a friendship. And on January 2020, they met with their husbands and Katie’s two kids. Niomi said: “The instant we met it felt like we’d always known each other. The connection was so strong.
“So when Katie offered to be our surrogate we were thrilled.”
Their friendship meant the process went smoothly from the off.
Discussing finances (in the UK surrogates can’t be paid but can receive expenses for things like childcare and lost earnings) was straightforward, as was agreeing on potentially tricky issues like antenatal screening.
Even the distance between them wasn’t an issue, as they continued to speak or message every day.
Then Covid arrived. Their very first medical appointment was cancelled and even when it did take place, Niomi couldn’t be in the room for the embryo transfer.
When Katie had a positive pregnancy test four days later, the elation made it all worth it.
Thanks to Katie’s medical team, Niomi and Sam were able to be there for every scan.
“We didn’t have a formal birth plan,” said Katie. “We were all happy to go with the flow and the hospital team couldn’t do enough for us.
“They even gave us an extra big delivery room so we could be together.”
Once Katie was induced, Niomi said it was hard to see her have contractions.
She said: “I was in total awe. I just wished that I could take her pain away. After all, she was doing this incredible thing just for us.”
When Eliana Katie finally arrived, Sam cut the cord and she went straight into Niomi’s arms.
The couple are now back at home in Wishaw with their baby, enjoying the thrill of first time parents.
But Niomi and Katie said their friendship, despite the distance, is very special. “We are more than friends now,” said Katie. “She is like my sister.”
