Month: March 2021

Canada, Surrogacy

Canada – Saskatchewan women sharing surrogacy story to inspire others to consider the option 

Intended Parents

Source CBC.CA

Amber Peters (left) and Marie Schultz became quick friends after becoming co-workers. After Schutz struggled with infertility for seven years, Peters offered to become a surrogate so Schultz could have a child. (Submitted by Marie Schultz)

Two Regina women are sharing their surrogacy story in hopes other struggling couples will consider the option. 

Amber Peters and Marie Schultz met at work in 2019 while Schultz was in the middle of fertility treatments. Schultz and her husband, Taylor, had been trying since 2013 to conceive without any luck. Schultz started sharing her struggles with her new friend. 

“After just a few weeks of getting to know each other, like we really clicked,” Schultz said. “She just kind of asked like ‘Have you ever thought about surrogacy? Could you think about not having that pregnant experience?’ But I was like honestly … I just want a child.” 

Read more

Costs, Russia, Surrogacy

Russia’s liberal surrogacy laws under threat

Intended Parents

Source BioEdge

“Russia’s liberal surrogacy rules are under threat,” reports The Economist. The country has become a haven for foreigners seeking cheap surrogate mothers. A woman’s services can be purchased for about US$20,000, much less expensive than the United States.

But after bad publicity over the death of a baby who was intended for a Filipino couple, the practice could be banned for foreigners. “Russia is not an incubator,” says Irina Yarovaya, a deputy speaker of the Duma, Russia’s parliament.

Read more

Gay Parenting, Surrogacy

Gay man fights to get Namibia to recognise his twins

Intended Parents

Source Joy Online

A Namibian high court is to decide whether a gay man can return home with his twin daughters, who were born to a surrogate mother in neighbouring South Africa.

Phillip Lühl says his daughters are stateless after Namibia’s Ministry of Home Affairs refused to issue emergency travel authorisation papers for them last week.

Under South Africa’s surrogacy laws, a child born to a surrogate mother takes the citizenship of its parents.

Read more

China, COVID-19, Surrogacy

Surrogate cares for family’s baby for 1 year due to coronavirus pandemic

Intended Parents

Source GMA

Emily Chrislip, a 25-year-old mom from Idaho, thought her experience as a surrogate for a family in China would end after she gave birth.

Instead, Chrislip and her husband, Brandon, remain the temporary caregivers for the baby Chrislip gave birth to last May.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the baby, whose name and face the family are not revealing publicly due to privacy concerns, has remained with the Chrislips in Idaho for nearly one year instead of returning to her biological parents in China.

Read more

Costs, Surrogacy

Surrogacy can cost upwards of $150,000 – here are the hidden costs to save for

Intended Parents

Source Yahoo! News

Surrogacy can cost upwards of $100,000 depending on the practice. Luxy Images/ Getty Images

Surrogacy is an option for people who can’t, or would prefer not to, carry a pregnancy themselves. However, it is an expensive process.

“Costs can range from $100,000 to $150,000 or more, depending on multiple factors,” says Amanda Kallen, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at Yale Fertility Center.

According to Kallen, costs can vary by agency, surrogate, number of fertility cycles, the lawyer you have, and even the state you or the surrogate are in. “For example, legal fees can differ from state to state, and in states where surrogates are in high demand, costs can be higher,” says Kallen.

Read more

COVID-19, Surrogacy

Commissioning parents panicking over surrogate mothers’ vaccinations

Intended Parents

Source BioEdge

The intersection of the Covid-19 pandemic and surrogacy has not been a happy one. After international border lockdowns, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of couples found that they were separated from babies gestating in women in countries like Ukraine.

The rollout of vaccines is proving to be another stumbling block. A fascinating feature in Vice says that many commissioning parents do not want their surrogate to be vaccinated before or during the pregnancy. “Surrogacy agencies have been fielding so many requests for unvaccinated women that several have started specifically matching vaccine-averse prospective parents with surrogates who are willing to stay unvaccinated,” Vice says.

Read more

Israel, Surrogacy

Israel – High Court pushes deadline to fix surrogacy law after electionsHigh Court pushes deadline to fix surrogacy law after elections

Intended Parents

Source The jerusalem Post

The High Court of Justice gave the Israeli government an extra four months on Wednesday to fix the surrogacy law that it deemed unconstitutional due to its failure to include single men and same-sex couples in the legislation, meaning that the deadline will now be after the March 23 elections.

The state will now have until July 1 to fix the legislation to include single men and same-sex couples. The new government, or the interim government if a new government is not formed, will be responsible for meeting the deadline. After the government files an update on the status of the law by July 1, the petitioners will have until July 5 to respond.

Read more

Celebrity, Surrogacy

6 Hollywood Celebrities That Are Normalizing Surrogacy

Intended Parents

Source Showbiz Chest

Having a family is a joyous thing that many couples look forward to and celebrate. There are many ways to create a family, and with the growing popularity of surrogacy, many pop culture fans are looking to the examples set by those in the public eye who have opened up about their experiences with surrogacy. The process of surrogacy traditionally describes a process where a gestational carrier carries a pregnancy for either an individual or a couple after undergoing IVF treatments.

Read more

COVID-19, Surrogacy

Anti-vax parents are demanding surrogates avoid the COVID vaccine

Intended Parents

Source New York Post

Getty Images/Photononstop RF

These parents don’t want their baby vaccinated — so they’re asking their surrogate not to get the coronavirus vaccine. 

As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available in the US, surrogacy agencies have been inundated with parents specifically requesting unvaccinated women to carry their babies, Vice reported.

In one extreme case, according to the report, a woman even asked if it was within her rights to have her surrogate abort the baby should the surrogate choose to get vaccinated against the woman’s will.

Read more

Australia, Surrogacy

Where New Zealand’s surrogacy laws could be headed

Intended Parents
Craig and Mark Catley and their son, Flynn, who was born in December 2018. The couple are currently expecting their second child from a US surrogate.

Source Stuff

When Cameron and David* found out their daughter had died from cot death, they were angry and frustrated.

Until this happened, they didn’t know she existed.

The same-sex couple always wanted children, but the difficulties accessing surrogacy in New Zealand led them to go off-the-books, to try a more DIY approach

The pair made an arrangement to create, and co-parent the child with a lesbian couple. But after three attempts, they gave up. The women moved to Australia.

Read more

Surrogacy

Rosanna Davison: Having our daughter by surrogacy in Kiev was a huge challenge

Intended Parents
Rosanna will be spending Mother’s Day with her daughter Sophia and twin babies Oscar and Hugo

Source Irish Examiner

I have two younger brothers, Hubie and Michael, and we had a magical childhood. We were great friends growing up and are still close, despite living in different countries now. We’re all close with our parents too and love spending time together. We were all sporty children, so the focus was always very much on spending as much time as possible outdoors in the garden running around and then playing football and badminton when we got a bit older.

It was a very happy time and much simpler without social media. I still remember getting dial-up internet, although I never spent much time on it. I only joined social media after I graduated from college, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

Read more

Surrogacy, UK

UK – Single mother, 23, who’s a surrogate for a gay couple says handing over her biological daughter didn’t feel like giving up ‘something personal’ because she doesn’t feel maternally bonded

Intended Parents

SourceThe Daily Mail

A single mother has claimed being a surrogate for a gay couple gave her life a ‘new meaning’ when she felt so low she ‘didn’t really want to continue’ living.

Emma, 23, met husbands Kevin, 35, and Aki, 40, from Berkshire, on a fertility app which she likened to Tinder and agreed to carry their child as well as let them use one of her eggs.

The trio share their story as part of a new BBC Three documentary, The Surrogates, which explores the emotional highs and lows of the surrogacy in the UK, told by five women and the would-be parents. 

Read more

Australia, Surrogacy

Call for commercial surrogacy to be legalized in Australia

Intended Parents

Source Bio Edge

An Australian surrogacy lobby has called for commercial surrogacy to be legalised in Australia. It is currently banned in all of the country’s states.

However, in 2019-20 275 babies born overseas to surrogate mothers were granted Australian citizenship, the highest number on record. Thailand and India, formerly popular destinations, no longer allow foreigners to employ surrogate mothers, so Australians have been going elsewhere.

Read more

Employee Benefits, India, Surrogacy

India – ‘Can’t Deny Maternity Leave To Surrogate Mothers, To Distinguish Is Insulting Womanhood’: Himachal Pradesh HC

Intended Parents

Source The Logical Indian

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday, March 4, ruled that a woman employee cannot be refused maternity leave even if she becomes a mother through surrogacy.

Image Credits: The Times of India

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday, March 4, ruled that a woman employee cannot be refused maternity leave even if she becomes a mother through surrogacy.

A division bench consisting of justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and justice Sandeep Sharma issued the order on the petition filed by a woman language teacher employed on contract in Kullu district.

Read more

Celebrity, Surrogacy

Hilaria Baldwin isn’t the only one with surrogate ‘twinblings’ babies

Intended Parents

Source NEW YORK POST

Her surrogate got pregnant — and so did she.

When Lara Beth Levy took a pregnancy test in July, she was bowled over by the results. “I’ve taken quite a few and none showed positive so quickly,” said the 34-year-old, who had suffered miscarriages and dealt with fertility issues for years.

But the craziest part wasn’t just that she was pregnant: It was that she was already expecting a biological daughter in mere months, via surrogate.

Read more