Coming Up Roses

Celebrity Mum of the Year Rosanna Davison chats to Niamh O’Reilly about why helping her daughter's surrogate flee Ukraine was a no-brainer and how being a mum has brought the wonder back into her life

When war broke out in Ukraine in February, Rosanna Davison thought immediately of the moment when her now three-year-old daughter was born. She recalls an overwhelming feeling of wanting to do more for Anastasiia Berezan, the woman who had acted as a surrogate for her and her husband Wes’s biological child.

Despite all parties being taken care of by a professional commercial agreement, Rosanna always felt she wanted to do more for the woman who had changed her life.      

“I felt she was in it for something deeper than just financial gain and she made that clear from the start”, Rosanna explains. “Nastia always said to me that she wanted to give us the baby we wanted; she was doing this from the heart.”

And immediately after the birth, Rosanna felt a strong personal connection with Nastia. “This woman had just given birth to our child and I should just give her a cheque and say ‘goodbye’? I remember thinking if we could help or thank her in a different way, then we would, because she means so much to us. She gave birth to our first child and made us parents,” Rosanna explains, her voice cracking as she recalls the emotions she felt that day.

“We stayed in touch and messaged quite a bit after Sophia was born.”

“When the war broke out, I thought back to that moment and said to Wes ‘we need to help her and her family. She helped our family when we needed her most’.”

a perilous journey

The mum-of-three immediately sprang into action and messaged Nastia the day the news broke about the Russian invasion. “If you can get out, come to Ireland and we will give you somewhere to live and look after you,” she told her. What followed for Nastia and her partner Katya, their five-year-old daughter Milana, and their beloved dog, Layla, was a traumatic experience. “It was a horrific and harrowing journey out of Ukraine”, Rosanna says. “Nastia still finds it still very hard to talk about it. It was difficult, but they felt that it was worth risking their lives, rather than staying under Russian occupation”.

Nastia and her family got themselves to the Polish border and from there the logistics of getting all three and the dog to Ireland became complicated. Thankfully Rosanna, her family and a series of amazing volunteers stepped up to help and when they arrived in Dublin on 25 April it was a huge relief for all parties.

Rosanna and her family organised an apartment for Nastia and her family to live in and continued to help them settle into life in Ireland.

“A few people said ‘are they living with you?’” Rosanna recalls. “I said, ‘I wouldn’t put them through the ordeal of living with three toddlers,’” she laughs. “No, I wanted them to have their own space and independence and that’s what they wanted.” However, Rosanna has continued to assist the family with the small day-to-day things such as PPS numbers, drivers licences, schools and things that may seem incidental to us, but are much more challenging to Nastia.

“They don’t speak English, so we’re working on Google translate which is brilliant. Sometimes I have felt a little bit overwhelmed with the responsibility of making sure they are settled in,'' she admits. Still, Rosanna is bursting with pride for how brave Nastia and her family have been. “They are just so fearless, so hard working, so pragmatic and such an inspiration. To move to a different country, to stay so positive, to be so motivated to go out and get a job and be self-sufficient. It just blows my mind. They haven’t come and asked me for anything, they really want to make a new life for themselves.”

surrogacy advocate

Rosanna has also been a strong advocate for surrogacy legislation in Ireland, which would finally take hundreds of families out of legal limbo. Thankfully there is light at the end of the tunnel, with legislation looming by the end of the year, however the humble Rosanna is keen to stress that the progress has been a monumental effort by many.

“It’s through the hard work and determination and passion and pushing of various groups of people, one of them being Irish Families Through Surrogacy, and we have the support of various TDs.” It’s been a very personal campaign for Rosanna, one she’s passionate about seeing through to the end. “It’s about children being protected by law, children like my daughter having the same legal rights as her brothers.” The glaring admission in the Irish legislation has been an unnecessary hurdle for families who wish to avail of surrogacy. “You know it’s one of those things which I was told about by our solicitor when we were considering surrogacy, but like most parents, you just think, well I just want my baby, I’m not going to worry about the legal bits right now.” Rosanna’s vocal support of the campaign has been hugely significant and she’s aware that at the heart of it, there are real issues on how women’s health has been treated historically in Ireland.

“My husband was able to prove through a DNA test right after Sophia was born that he is her biological father. I’m her genetic mother. I went through the egg removal. It was not fun or enjoyable. I went through all of that, she’s my biological daughter, yet why can’t I prove that?” she asks. “We have moved forward, but there’s more work to do.”

For her tireless advocacy for surrogacy legislation, as well as her incredible support of her daughters gestational surrogate, Rosanna was crowned Celebrity Mum of the Year at the Beko Woman’s Way Mum of the Year Awards.

For now, Rosanna is focussing on her young family; Sophia, who will be three in November and her twins Oscar and Hugo who will be two the same month. Her daughter who has recently started playschool is loving her new lease of independence. “She is so happy and skips in and out every day.” Twins Oscar and Hugo are full of energy. “Everything is exciting [to them] and it’s brought the magic back into our lives,” she laughs. “I look at a plane or if a JCB passes by on a walk, it’s the pinnacle of excitement. That’s something I didn’t anticipate; I didn’t think all that magic would come back into my life again”.

Needless to say, Rosanna’s kept busy juggling work and her young children whom she adores and while it can get exhausting from time to time, she never takes a moment for granted. “This is what I wanted, and I see it as a privilege to be home with them as much as I am. I try to remind myself everyday of how lucky we are and take millions of pictures of them. I think anyone who’s been desperate for a family appreciates when they're here and they're healthy”.

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