26 November 2023 , 08:59
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A couple who thought they would never have children are getting ready to celebrate this Christmas with the arrival of baby number thirteen.
Shattered Natalie and Oliver Jackson feared they would never have a family when Oliver had a testicle removed in 2004 after being diagnosed with stage 3 cancer that had spread to his stomach and lungs. So they had some of his sperm frozen before his surgery in May 2004 after being warned his fertility would be reduced.
But the couple soon discovered there was no need for IVF to make their baby dream come true. After Oliver was given the all-clear following chemotherapy, they celebrated by getting married in Las Vegas in February 2005. And six months later Natalie was amazed to discover she’d fallen pregnant naturally with son Elliott.
Then the babies just wouldn’t stop coming – and by the time the tenth was born in November 2018, Oliver decided it was time for the snip. But even a vasectomy couldn’t stop the production line of little Jacksons – with three more joining in the family fun.
Natalie and Oliver
The parents with baby ElliottNow Natalie, 44, who met Oliver, 45, at a Christmas party in 2000 while both worked for the RAF, says: “I feel so lucky – we thought we’d never have kids, now we have 13. When we’re all out together, we get comments like, ‘Don’t you have a TV?’ But I love having a massive family. We have so much fun.”
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She says she couldn’t believe how lucky they were when their first son Elliott was born in May 2006 at Lincoln County Hospital. She says: “When I saw the positive pregnancy test, I was gobsmacked.
“After Oliver had got the all-clear, I’d felt guilty for feeling heartbroken at maybe not having children. Now all my dreams were coming true.” Seven months after Elliott’s birth, Natalie fell pregnant with Casper, then Rhett, then her first daughter, Seren. And they didn’t stop there…
The Jackson familyWhen Natalie was pregnant with baby number 5, Taliesin, in 2011, Oliver’s job as a multi-engine pilot took the family to America, where they went on to have Felix in 2013 and Milo in 2014. A year later they were back in Lincolnshire at Cranwell, where eighth child Jonah was born in 2016.
Then came another move across the pond to Florida, where babies nine and 10 were born – Delia in September 2017 and Kit in November 2018. Finally, in September 2018, Oliver had a vasectomy – with tests confirming it was successful.
Then an astonished Natalie fell pregnant with three January babies in a row – baby 11, Quinn, was born in 2021 after the family returned to the UK, based in Lossiemouth, Scotland, followed by baby 12, Keifer, in 2022. Baby 13, Indy, was born in January this year after a move back to Lincolnshire.
Oliver as an RAF pilotNatalie says: “People actually asked Oliver how he knew the last three were his. Our older kids were stunned, as we’d said we weren’t having any more.” Vasectomies reverse themselves in around one in 4,000 men, when cut and sealed tubes grow back and reconnect, sometimes allowing a few sperm through but rarely enough to result in pregnancy.
Natalie admits: “We were quite relieved the vasectomy had reversed itself. Expanding our family was meant to be.” She says having this massive brood with the man she loves feels perfect and she’s proud of their self-sufficiency.
“Our family is funded solely on Oliver’s wage. We earn over the £60k child benefit threshold and pay 40% tax. We get military accommodation, so we have a big enough house and our six eldest attend a military boarding school, which is very helpful.” The family have a 15-seater Ford minibus and a seven-seater car, but travelling between the UK and US for Oliver’s work is trickier.
Natalie says: “We can’t book flights online because of the number of seats we need, so we have to call airlines. It’s the same with trains. We love day trips to London, but I have to make two bookings.”
The supermum has housekeeping down to a fine art. “We spend about £300 a month on fuel and around £250 a week on groceries when everyone’s home,” she says. Buying mostly own-brand items, she uses reusable nappies and wipes and the kids wear pre-loved clothes and hand-me-downs. “I also sell items we’ve finished with,” says Natalie – but she admits to having 2,500 books, mainly children’s.
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Plenty of meals to be had
(Left to right) Milo, Kit, Rhett, Taliesin, Casper, Jonah, Seren holding Quinn, Delia, Felix and Elliott holding KieferNow they are all looking forward to a massive family Christmas. “I’ll hang all 13 stockings above our fireplace, and we’ll sit around our big table for lunch – no turkey, just a couple of large chickens,” says Natalie. “My family will visit and we always eat on Christmas Eve to leave the big day for family time.
“On Christmas morning the children take it in turns to open presents so the rest of us can watch. If we had them all unwrapping at once, then we’d miss their reactions.”
Oliver works away a lot, but Natalie says he is a brilliant hands-on dad when he is home. Oliver says: “As a father of 13, I feel extremely lucky, grateful, and also exhausted in equal measure.
“I feel very proud of the children and I have utter respect for all that Natalie does. She is what holds our family together. I will always be grateful for all she has given me.”
Natalie adds: “We work so well together. We are a proper team. The best part of having a big family is that no one gets lonely. There’s always someone to have your back.” And there may yet be more babies ahead.
“Apart from some saggy skin on my stomach and a few varicose veins, I’ve not really got any adverse signs from giving birth,” says Natalie. “And I don’t avoid getting pregnant. We never use contraception. If we did have another baby, we’d feel very blessed.”
Beating the odds
After a vasectomy, a couple has less than a 1% chance of conceiving, according to medics. And chemotherapy can cause permanent infertility, Dr Samantha Joseph, of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, said.
She added: “It is extremely rare for a vasectomy to reverse itself, especially if semen analysis has shown the procedure to be successful. Natalie and Oliver really do seem to have defied the odds. They must both be extremely fertile.”