It’s not the first place we’d look, but this is an amazing story.
Lisa Marie, 36, wanted desperately to have kids. She and her husband tried every avenue they could think of – sex, intrauterine inseminations and IVF, but nothing worked.
Eventually, the hopeful mother-to-be was told that her eggs were no longer viable.
“At first I felt broken, like less of a woman because my body couldn’t do what it was supposed to do,” she told Redbook Magazine.
So, Lisa Marie took to the internet to find help and support in her difficult time. It was on YouTube that she found a community of women who were struggling with infertility too. So Lisa Marie began her own YouTube blog. She posted videos that captured her crazy and emotionally challenging infertility journey.
Lisa Marie started making friends online. She met one particularly special woman, Kelli in 2012. Initially she found her on YouTube then their friendship moved from Facebook to FaceTime. Lisa Marie learned that while Kelli had three children was very similar to her in many other ways.
"She felt like a younger sister to me," Lisa Marie told Redbook Magazine.
They met in person and their bond strengthened. After Lisa Marie's second failed attempt at IVF they visited Kelli for her son's birthday. Lisa spoke to Kelli about contemplating adoption (Kelli had been adopted herself). On Lisa's return home, Kelli called and offered her eggs for Lisa Marie to have a baby.
Then the real journey began.
The couple couldn't have afforded egg donation because it cost between $20, 000-$30, 000. And while this wasn't going to be cheap, the offer was life changing.
They went through the long and emotional egg donation journey together and finally one morning, Lisa Marie peed on a stick and saw two beautiful lines next to each other. She was pregnant. She shared the experience with Kelli over FaceTime, and had her baby, Gemma Evangeline five weeks early.
It's an unlikely place to find an egg donor, but Lisa Marie said she found not just an egg donor but a best friend, on the worldwide video site - YouTube.
Would you go to YouTube to help with infertility (or any personal) issues?
Want more? Try this:
"Fertility breakthrough - donor eggs to be imported from the US."
"I was told there was a less than one per cent chance of becoming a mum."