An Oxfordshire woman who was determined to have a baby, broke up with her boyfriend and decided to go it alone.

Showroom assistant Katie Barnes, 40, from Henley on Thames, wanted to have a baby girl at 39 before it was too late and decided that using a stranger’s sperm was the best way forward.

Ms Barnes welcomed her daughter Olivia, 19 months old, in 2021, weighing 6Ibs 130z.

After breaking up with her boyfriend in June 2020, Ms Barnes realised how much she wanted to be a mum.

Ms Barnes researched all the possible treatment options and opted to go with IUI, which is a fertility treatment that involves directly inserting sperm into a woman’s womb.

This is a cheaper alternative to IVF.

In January 2021, Ms Barnes had a procedure at TFP Oxford Fertility to insert the sperm and she fell pregnant two weeks later.

The pregnancy was “textbook” and Olivia was born on October 3, 2021.

Ms Barnes said: "The relationship ended and I was 38.

“Before that relationship I had thought about doing it on my own, so it didn't take me too long to get back into thinking about it.

"I have always wanted to have children and I was worried about my biological clock.”

Ms Barnes said she felt a “massive bubble of love” after Olivia was born.

She said: "'All my friends and family were very supportive of me doing it on my own.”

Ms Barnes’ fertility journey started when she had a check-up in August at the TFP Oxford Fertility and it was then that she first started looking for a sperm donor.

She picked a donor from Georgia, US, who was working as a psychologist.

Ms Barnes said: "It is really challenging.

"I tell people it was the weirdest thing I have ever had to do.

"It is a little like internet dating as you are looking through hundreds of photos deciding which ones you like the look of.

"I looked at a couple of sperm banks in America and I really liked one of them which showed childhood pictures and adult pictures.”

Ms Barnes picked a sperm bank which showed lots about the donors’ personality, their job and family history.

She said: "The man I picked, looked lovely.

“He is a psychologist and I thought he would have a nice calming character and he wrote in his letter that he is family orientated which is important to me.

"He had a kind, gentle face and a nice smile with brown eyes like mine.”

Ms Barnes had the procedure to insert the sperm in January 2021 and fell pregnant for the first time just two weeks later.

She praised the staff at TFP Oxford Fertility and said they were “always very sensitive and supportive”.

She gave birth via c-section at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, and has since said that being a single mother is a “huge rollercoaster”.