Lee Daffy is a nurturer. A social worker by trade, and now PhD candidate conducting research to support Indigenous women in the Australian Public Service, her community-minded work has always been balanced with the needs of her family.
“My love for my children surpasses everything. My kids always come first above and beyond everything else,” Lee, 52, says. “I always knew I wanted to have kids, to spend my life with them, sharing with them, and helping them on their journey. My children are my joy.”
Lee met her husband, Shane, at 19 and by 21 she was pregnant with their first child, Joshua. Aleesha was born two years later. The young family moved from Melbourne to Bendigo for a better lifestyle, and when Lee and Shane reached their thirties, they decided they wanted more children. Hannah was born, and then Shayla. With four kids, the Daffy family was complete, and Lee went to see her gynaecologist about having her tubes tied.
“He slid an Essure pamphlet across the table and said, ‘This is the way we do things now. These things are really safe’. I remember asking, ‘Why is this better than just getting them cut and tied?’ He explained that this is less invasive. There are no cuts.”
He “didn’t talk about any possible issues,” Lee says. “We booked it in.”
Lee’s youngest child, Shayla, was only five months old when Lee had the permanent contraceptive inserted in her fallopian tubes. Essure is an intrauterine device comprised of a nickel-titanium alloy
