S5:E35 - Danielle & Summer
From a Year of Summer to a Baby Called Summer — Danielle’s Solo Mum Story
Danielle describes herself as a hopeless romantic — the kind of person who has watched every rom-com ever made and genuinely believed the fairy tale was coming. Meet someone wonderful, get married, have kids. That was the plan. And she tried. Dating apps, speed dating, throwing the net wide throughout her 30s. But the men she met either weren’t ready to commit, or they didn’t light her up. By the time she reached her self-imposed cutoff of 35, she hadn’t found her person — and her biological clock wasn’t waiting.
What she did next is one of the most quietly brave things I’ve heard: she took a year off, bought a campervan, and drove herself around Australia chasing the sun. She called it her year of summer. And somewhere along those winding roads, she gave herself the time and space to figure out what she actually wanted — not what she’d been conditioned to expect, but what was true for her.
What she landed on was this: she wanted to be a mum. And she didn’t need to wait for someone else to make that happen.
Danielle had already had her AMH levels checked at 34 and discovered they were on the lower end of normal for her age. So before her big trip, she’d frozen her eggs — as a form of insurance, she says, keeping her options open. When she returned and was ready to move forward, her clinic advised her to make embryos from fresh eggs rather than using the frozen ones. That sent her down a path she hadn’t anticipated: finding a donor, navigating interstate treatment, and sitting with the grief of a journey that looked nothing like the one she’d imagined.
She settled on City Fertility Melbourne — partly because they had access to local Australian donors, which was a priority for her. She wanted a local donor because of Australia’s regulations around donor limits, and because she believed it was important that her child would one day be able to access information about their donor if they chose to. Tasmania, she notes, is a small place — she wanted a little distance between daily life and the possibility of a chance encounter.
The IUI stage was confronting in ways she didn’t expect. Not just the logistics of flying interstate for monitoring appointments, but the emotional weight. She had a chemical pregnancy on her first IUI, which made her wary moving forward. And after her first procedure, she found herself crying while walking through a park with her mum — not because she didn’t want this, but because she was finally, undeniably, doing it on her own. Two things can be true at the same time. She wanted this. And she was also grieving something.
After three IUIs, she moved to IVF. She was sick after egg collection and couldn’t have a fresh transfer, which added another layer of anxiety. But she got three embryos to freeze — and a couple of months later, her best quality embryo became Summer.
Summer arrived via C-section at 38 weeks, with Danielle’s sister holding her hand in the operating room. She was petrified of birth. Her sister kept her grounded. And the moment Summer was placed on her chest, every fear dissolved.
Summer is six months old now, full of personality and curiosity, lighting up at everything. Danielle is on maternity leave, filling their days with playgroups, playdates, and swings. She’s found a small solo mum community in Tasmania, and she’s hoping to create more of it herself — weekend getaways, camping trips, connections.
And as for Prince Charming? She can’t believe she cried in that park after her first IUI. She wouldn’t change a thing. No compromises, no one to argue with, nobody taking Summer on the weekends. Just the two of them, doing it their way.
She couldn’t be happier.
In this episode:
Deciding at 35 that she wasn’t waiting any longer
A year of solo travel and what it clarified
Freezing eggs at 34 — and why she still ended up doing a fresh IVF cycle
Choosing a local Australian donor and going interstate for treatment from Tasmania
A chemical pregnancy on the first IUI, and the grief that came with it
Crying in the park after her first IUI — and why that’s completely normal
Accessing superannuation for fertility treatment costs (yes, it involves a psychiatrist)
A C-section at 38 weeks, and her sister in the room
Life at 6 months with Summer
Donor siblings and the register: Summer’s choice, when she’s ready
Advice for anyone considering this path: just take the next step
This episode is brought to you by City Fertility
Exploring fertility treatment as a solo mum in Australia? City Fertility offers an exclusive 20% discount for No Need for Prince Charming listeners. Claim your discount here.
Still considering whether this path is right for you?
The Considering Solo Motherhood course helps you make an informed, empowered decision — and understand what the process actually looks like before you start. Live or on demand, from anywhere in the world. Learn more here.
