A 22-year-old single woman who attempted to fulfill her lifelong obsession with motherhood by using a sperm donor she found via Facebook later terminated an IVF pregnancy after learning her baby had no kidneys or bladder, and came close to losing her own life in the process.
Alannah Dunn, a residential support worker from Merthyr Tydfil, described feeling as though there was a hole in her heart at the age of 22 as she desperately longed for a child. While living in New Zealand and single at the time, she sourced a sperm donor through Facebook and performed at-home insemination.
According to the Donor Conception Network, this approach carries significant legal, practical and relational risks that are reduced or not present when treatment is undertaken at a licensed clinic.
Following a miscarriage and 18 months of unsuccessful attempts, she returned to Wales at the end of 2023 to pursue private IVF, falling pregnant in November 2025.
At her 20-week scan, Alannah said doctors discovered her daughter, Effie, had no kidneys, bladder or urinary tract, a compressed skull and very little amniotic fluid – the liquid that surrounds and protects a foetus during pregnancy.
She said doctors informed her that Effie was unlikely to survive, and she made the decision to terminate the pregnancy at 24 weeks.
Just days later, Alannah said she came close to death after suffering a severe haemorrhage caused by part of the placenta remaining inside her uterus following the birth.
Now aged 27, with one embryo remaining, she is fundraising £5,000 for another transfer, describing it as her last chance of giving Effie a sibling.
Alannah told PA Real Life: "I have such a big hole in my heart that needs to be filled, and it just keeps getting bigger. It would be a dream come true to become a mum, it's my purpose in life, I'm desperate."
Alannah, who was born in Wales but relocated to New Zealand with her family at the age of 10, has harboured ambitions of becoming a mother for as long as she can recall.
By the age of 22, she said she was still waiting to find herself in a long-term, committed relationship where having children felt like a real possibility.
Alannah explained: "I get a lot of anxiety meeting new people, and I tried dating apps but just didn't meet the right person. I realised, 'why am I waiting for a relationship to have children, when all I really want is a baby now?' I'm not writing off a relationship, but having a baby is what I'm prioritising."
Towards the end of 2021, Alannah began researching, joining Facebook groups and watching TikTok videos about single motherhood. She said she figured out she could utilise donor sperm and perform artificial insemination at home.
A spokesperson from the Donor Conception Network, regarding using unregulated sperm donation, said: "This route carries significant legal, practical and relational risks that are not present, or are reduced, when undergoing treatment in a licensed clinic. We recommend that anyone considering this route should proceed cautiously, think carefully about the long-term implications for the future child, seek specialist counselling and legal advice, and recognise that online donor arrangements operate without many of the safeguards provided by regulated fertility treatment."
Alannah purchased a home insemination kit, which included syringes and sterile containers for sperm collection. She explained: "I could have gone down the formal, legal route, but I was part of a Facebook group for people doing it independently, including donors, and wanted to do it that way, without any delays."
Through the online community, she said she started communicating with a local man who wished to donate his sperm, having previously done so for a friend and witnessed the difficulties people encounter when attempting to conceive.
"We met up, had proper conversations, and he didn't seem like a dodgy person. I felt very safe," she added.
Alannah said she and the man signed a contract at the start of 2022, obtained from the Facebook group, confirming that he would have no parental rights should a pregnancy occur, and that no financial exchange was involved. She said she would travel to his residence, collect the sample, return to her own home, and perform the insemination herself.
Alannah detailed: "I'd use the syringe to insert it, and then I used a disc, like a menstrual cup, to keep the sperm inside me for around 12 hours."
She described her family as very supportive of her choice, saying they even encouraged her, as they appreciated how desperately she wanted a child.
She conceived following the second insemination in August 2022, which she described as making her feel amazing. However, five-and-a-half weeks later she suffered a miscarriage, leaving her heartbroken.
She persisted with at-home insemination once a month for 18 months, yet failed to conceive again. She then decided to explore IVF, only to discover the waiting list in New Zealand was approximately three years. As she could not wait any longer, she relocated back to the UK at the end of 2023, believing treatment would be more readily available there.
However, her preferred clinic closed its doors, and her second choice ceased offering embryo donation. She eventually commenced IVF at a private clinic in June 2025 – and after donating some of her eggs, Alannah was left with three viable embryos.
Her first transfer in August 2025 proved unsuccessful, but she fell pregnant in November of that year. "It was fantastic, but fear immediately took over. I was so scared something would go wrong after the miscarriage," she added.
Alannah revealed she experienced light bleeding early in the pregnancy, though scans at six and 12 weeks appeared normal. However, after doctors struggled to see the baby clearly at her 17 and 20-week scans, Alannah was referred to the foetal medicine unit, where she said it was found that there was little to no amniotic fluid and her baby was not developing as anticipated.
She said doctors informed her that the baby was unlikely to survive if born and presented her with the option of terminating the pregnancy. "My world just crashed. They said they couldn't see her bladder, kidneys or urinary tract, and she wasn't producing amniotic fluid, meaning her lungs wouldn't develop," she explained. "Her chest had a bell shape because there were no lungs, and they said she could be compressed due to being underdeveloped. Her skull was also being compressed and had not fused together, it was in fragments, because of the low amniotic fluid."
Following several weeks of deliberation, she made the decision to proceed with the termination, stating she could not bear to watch her baby girl die. At 24 weeks, she underwent the procedure – doctors stopped the baby's heartbeat, and Alannah was administered medication to halt pregnancy hormones. Two days later she was induced, and 24 hours after that she gave birth to her daughter on April 24 2026.
"I held her because I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't," she said. She brought her baby home in a cold cot for two days to preserve her body and spend time with her before taking her to be cremated. On April 29, Alannah revealed she experienced a severe postpartum haemorrhage, passing huge blood clots and losing pools of blood.
She disclosed that she was rushed to hospital by ambulance and taken into theatre to have a retained placenta removed, where part of the placenta had remained in the uterus following childbirth. Alannah went on to say that doctors told her she nearly died, but that they managed to stabilise her and successfully remove the remaining placental tissue. "It was just so brutal, I was in a cycle of grief, and felt just awful," she said.
Alannah currently has one embryo remaining and is raising £5,000 for another transfer. "It's my last chance to give Effie a sibling, it would mean the world to me. It's all I've ever wanted," she said. While she is open to adoption in the future, she believes the system would favour couples and therefore feels it would take a very long time.
