Opening up about her first pregnancy, the former catwalk beauty reveals that she is the one who transferred the embryo to her Birmingham attorney wife's uterus.
- Jun 25, 2021
AceShowbiz - Deidre Downs is going to be a first-time mom. The first gay Miss America, who came out in 2018, opened up in a new interview that she is expecting her first child with her wife Abbott Jones after going through a successful in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The 40-year-old mom stopped by the "Pregnantish" podcast on Wednesday, June 23 to reflect back on her IVF journey with her spouse. The couple took a reciprocal IVF, which means both of them go through egg retrieval. However, testing showed that the former catwalk beauty's eggs weren't in great shape. "Fortunately, Abbott's were, so I have been on the sidelines," she said.
"It becomes overwhelming, but it is entertaining. Some of the banks will give you a [donor who's a] celebrity look-alike, which was amusing," Deidre said about choosing a sperm donor. Abbott then chimed in, "I will say when we were looking at donors, my goal was to find someone as close to Deidre as possible." The Birmingham attorney continued, "But when you marry Miss America who is a doctor, there's not really anyone like her. So it was tough."
After finding the right person, Deidre, who is an obstetrician and reproductive endocrinologist, had the embryo transferred on December 18, 2020. "She did the embryo transfer part," Abbott confirmed. The rest of the treatments was done by the model's medical team partner Dr. Sukhkamal Campbell.
"We got our first, very faint, pink line on the at-home pregnancy test on December 23," Abbott recalled. The happy couple told their families the exciting news on Christmas morning via Zoom. "Everyone was just jumping up and down and excited," the attorney added.
Deidre continued, "I feel very fortunate. [Abbott] was fully prepared that it might take several tries." The pageant winner also added that it was "strange" to be on the patient side of IVF treatment. Of her pregnancy journey, she said, "I hope people see there are many ways to build a family. If you are gay, straight, in a relationship or not in one, there are many ways to make that happen."
