Source: Podtail
Sarah Jefford presents The Australian Surrogacy Podcast – sharing stories about surrogacy, from intended parents and surrogates.
Category: Surrogacy
UK – ‘My online surrogate is now my best friend’: Mum reveals incredible bond after birth of twins
Source: Mirror
Online pals Elouise King and Jenny Robinson were nervous about their first face-to-face meeting – yet it would seal the mother of all friendships.
The pair had exchanged messages on a surrogacy forum but didn’t know if they would click in person.
That first meeting was in a pub. Fitting really, for just 18 months later they would be wetting the baby’s head not once, but twice, after Jen gave birth to Elouise and hubby Paul’s TWINS .
‘It’s such a crude and jarring process’: Gay couple reveals the REAL cost of having kids via surrogacy, detailing how they paid $171,000 to become parents to their twins
Source: Daily Mail
A gay father of twins has revealed that he and his partner paid a total of $171,000 to have to have the children via a surrogate.
Speaking to The Cut as part of its How I Got This Baby series, a 36-year-old man named Brad from Indiana detailed the lengths he and his husband had to go to when they decided to have children.
Six months after they got married, the couple started the process of finding an egg donor even though Brad initially thought adoption was the only way he could even becoming a dad.
Pioneering London initiative teaches surrogate mothers to breastfeed
Source: Evening Standard
Women who become mothers via a surrogate are being taught how to breastfeed their baby in a pioneering London initiative.
Justine White, a breastfeeding adviser, has helped three women to feed — even though they had not given birth.
She was inspired by tribesmen in the Congo who allow babies to suck on their nipples to comfort them while the mothers hunt.
Enabling women who have not given birth to breastfeed is practised in North America but is not widely known about in this country.
6 Legal Issues Singaporean Couples Should Consider Before Hiring a Surrogate
Source: Yahoo Finance
According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), surrogacy refers to the arrangement where “a woman is artificially impregnated, whether for monetary compensation or not, with the intention that the child is to be the social child of some other person or couple”.
Commercial surrogacy often involves a fee paid to the surrogate mother. By hiring a surrogate mother, you are essentially hiring a woman to carry and deliver a child for you.
‘Platonic’ couple can be joint parents
Source: The Times
A married couple in a sexless marriage because one of them is gay have been given the go ahead to be joint parents to a surrogate baby.
Britain’s leading Family Court judge, Sir James Munby, said it did not matter that the marriage was “platonic” or that they had separate homes.
UK – Surrogacy abroad: how to get started
Source: Lexology
With more people facing fertility issues and couples increasingly seeking alternative routes to have children, there is a growing number of UK families created through surrogacy.
In the last three years, the number of children being born through surrogacy has almost tripled according to figures from the Ministry of Justice Family Court.
Surrogacy is no longer a taboo – along with adoption it has become an accepted alternative to traditional child birth. It has even recently featured in the Archers on Radio 4 and has been put into the headlines by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West who have recently used a surrogate to have their baby, Chicago.
New Uniform Parentage Act Becomes Law in Washington State
Source: The Humanist
Earlier this week, Governor Jay Inslee of Washington signed into law an updated version of the state’s Uniform Parentage Act. Written to safeguard the rights of LGBTQ and non-biological parents, the new law defines a “de facto” parent as well as allows compensation beyond medical and other expenses for surrogate mothers.
According to the law’s sponsor, state Senator Jamie Pedersen, who has four children with his husband conceived through surrogacy, the bill will help parents who want to have a child through surrogacy at home in Washington State, rather than leaving the state. (Pedersen and his husband had their children in California where compensated surrogacy is already allowed.)
Surrogacy laws in Western Australia set to change
Source: 9 News
It’s the ultimate gift – bringing a baby into the world through surrogacy.
However, in Western Australia, only 10 babies have been born through a surrogate in the last decade because the state’s laws are so tough.
The process often takes up to a year and costs roughly $80,000.
That makes Robina and her husband Ryan’s one year old son, Raphael, a rare baby.
2C Spotlight: Andrea Friesen carries twins for younger sister
Source: Idaho Press-Tribune
Andrea Friesen of Nampa said three of the hardest phone calls she’s ever had to make were to call her younger sister, Kim Richardson, each time she got pregnant.
Friesen had three successful pregnancies. During those years, Richardson and her husband, Casey, longed to have children but faced painful infertility hurdles and miscarriages.
“It’s hard to see these guys want that so badly and try and not get that — when it has been so easy for me,” Friesen said.
So, Friesen and her husband, Dan, made a proposal: What if Andrea carried the baby for Kim and Casey?
UK – Woman born without a womb to finally become a mum after workmate makes incredible offer to be surrogate
Source: Daily Record
Natasha Hutcheon and her childhood sweetheart will finally become parents after colleague Katie Beardal agreed to be their surrogate.
It was a dream they feared would never be realised after a series of heartbreaking setbacks.
But now a couple will finally become parents after a work colleague agreed to be a surrogate mum.
Natasha Hutcheon and childhood sweetheart Peter Walker, both 31, have dreamed of having a baby together since they met as teenagers.
They thought their hopes were dashed when Natasha discovered she was unable to have children.
Now, after 89 hospital visits and two miscarriages in eight years, Natasha’s co-worker Katie Beardal is expecting their baby in September.
Infertility treatments that could help women get pregnant despite the odds
Source: The Health Site
The last two decades have been revolutionary in terms of fertility management and triumphing challenges posed by infertility. To the couple experiencing difficulty in getting pregnant, there is plenty of hope today. It is not a lost battle like it was in the past. Besides, almost every hurdle can be overcome with the help of scientific and technologically advanced options. For example, a woman without a uterus can still have her own child by borrowing another’s womb! This makes experts believe that every woman how chooses to become pregnant can be blessed.
International – Children risk being “commodities” as surrogacy spreads
Source: Scoop World
Children risk being “commodities” as surrogacy spreads, UN rights expert warns
GENEVA (6 March 2018) – Children face becoming commodities as surrogacy arrangements become more prevalent, and urgent action is needed to protect their rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children has warned.
“There is no right to have a child under international law,” said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, who presented a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “Children are not goods or services that the State can guarantee or provide. They are human beings with rights.
UK government: Parents should tell their surrogate children about their birth
Source: BioEdge
The UK’s Department for Health and Social Care has released new guidelines advising that children born via surrogacy be told of their origins.
The guidelines, released last Wednesday, are intended to “ensure LGBTQ+ individuals are given equal care, and that all surrogates and intended parents are treated with due dignity and respect”. The document states:
Research suggests that openness, confidence and transparency about a child’s origins from an early age (pre-school) is the best way to talk to children about their identity and origins. Your fertility counsellor should have given you the opportunity to explore how you feel about telling a child about their origins, and fertility counsellors would be happy to help you reach a decision about this at any time, as your thoughts and feelings about if, when and how to do this may change over time.
Fertility options for the LGBT community
Source: Out In Jersey
LGBT people have gradually stepped out from shadows over the last 50 years, not only transforming our own lives, but those of our families and communities. A generation or two ago, the children we raised were born of previous heterosexual relationships. This began to change in the 1970s and ‘80s, aided by helpful court rulings that reflected cultural sea change in attitudes toward gay people in general. In 1997, New Jersey became the first state to allow same-sex couples to adopt jointly.
Adoption, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization and surrogacy are now viable avenues available for LGBT individuals and couples. Ultimately, the choice of how to build your family (adoption vs. fertility treatment) is a personal decision based on many factors. Those who seek help from assisted reproductive technologies want to have children with whom they share a genetic connection. What is this path like?
UK – First surrogacy guidelines for England and Wales released
Source BioNews
Appeared in BioNews 940
Government guidance has been issued for couples considering surrogacy in England and Wales, for the first time.
Two sets of guidelines have been released, one for surrogates and intended parents, and the other for healthcare professionals working with them.
Couples planning to enter into an agreement with a surrogate are recommended to use written agreements covering conception, expenses and any planned relationship between the surrogate and the child. They are also encouraged to use established surrogacy organisations in the UK to find a surrogate, rather than travelling abroad to clinics or using informal arrangements.
India – Sunny Leone welcomes sons via surrogacy
Source: Gulf News
Actress Sunny Leone on Monday surprised everyone by announcing the birth of her sons Noah and Asher via surrogacy.
She had adopted a girl, Nisha, in 2017.
Leone took to Twitter to post a picture of herself along with husband Daniel Weber and their three children.
Leone captioned it: “God’s plan! June 21st, 2017 was the day Daniel and I found out that we might possibly be having three children within a short amount of time. We planned and tried to have a family and after so many years [our] family is now complete with Asher Singh Weber, Noah Singh Weber and Nisha Kaur Weber.”
Australia – Surrogacy success for Hunter family with new baby after years of heartache, IVF, and two surrogates.
Source: Newcastle Herald
BY the time Kristy and Craig Darken found out they were going to be parents, they had almost given up all hope of holding a child of their own in their arms.
It had been close to eight years of highs and lows, of hope and of devastation, as the Elermore Vale couple trod the testing track of having a baby via a surrogate.
But then, countless counselling sessions, IVF, two surrogates and 10 embryos later, a tearful late night phone call came from Kristy’s sister, Rebecca.
“She was crying her eyes out,” Kristy said.
“I thought she was crying because she knew it was our last try. I thought she was devastated. Then finally, she said, ‘I’m pregnant. It worked’.
Fertty International: Study Reveals Americans Opting for Assisted Reproductive Treatment Abroad
Source: Cision PR Newswire
The high cost of assisted reproductive treatment in North America is forcing many US citizens to look to other countries for high-quality medical care at a lower cost.
In 2016, nearly 1.4 million Americans travelled outside the U.S. in search of medical treatment, compared to 750,000 in 2008. Currently, medical tourism, or cross border reproductive care as the media have labelled it, is rising by 25% per year.
The primary reasons for these trips, according to a study conducted by the Task Force on Ethics and Law from the ESHRE, and published in the scientific journal Human Reproduction (Shenfield et al. 2010), is the difficulty in accessing certain treatments due to legal restrictions, long waiting lists, and thirdly, the search for high-quality reproductive treatment.
The main countries hosting these medical tourists in Europe are Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland, Slovenia and Spain. The fact that the latter has the most permissive legislation in terms of assisted reproduction, together with the European regulations on mobilisation of biological samples, and high medical and technical quality make Spain the top destination. It is also the country with the most egg donations.
Tribunal grants maternity leave to govt. servant who begot children through surrogacy
Source: The Hindu
The Central Administrative Tribunal has come to the aid of a woman, working in the Ministry of Law & Justice, who was denied maternity leave as she had begotten her children through surrogacy.
The Tribunal directed the Ministry to sanction 180 days of maternity leave to the woman citing three high court’s verdicts which have held that the commissioning mother is also entitled for grant of maternity leave.
The woman is working as a Personal Assistant in the Legislative Department, Official Language Wing of Ministry of Law & Justice. As she was unable to conceive due to medical issues, she entered into Gestational Surrogacy Agreement with another woman.