JUST LIKE NAOMI CAMPBELL ‘I HAD A BABY... AT 50!'

FIORINA GOLOTTA STARTED HER FAMILY LATER IN LIFE

- Emma Levett

Having a baby was always part of Fiorina Golotta’s plan. She was one of four siblings in a big Italian family and, as she grew up, she just assumed that she’d have a career, meet her Prince Charming and then start a big family of her own.

“But I woke up at 40 and that hadn’t happened,” the Melbourne jewellery designer tells New Idea. “Fertility hadn’t been spoken about when I was younger. I hadn’t really appreciated there was an expiry date and so now I wanted a baby, but I was fighting against science and statistics.”

And so began Fiorina’s struggle to make her dream a reality. At age 47, she and her new partner, George, who was then 40, made multiple trips to the United States for IVF, but every time it left them agonisingly empty-handed.

“We went to America because there are so many more choices there. It’s more normal to carry a baby up to age 51 or 52 and lots of evidence of success,” says Fiorina, now 51. “When it didn’t work after two years, I knew we had to stop. It was a huge emotional investment.”