Surrogacy...everyone is doing it!

Surrogacy seems to be everywhere these days. I remember hearing only negative stories about surrogacy when I was a kid. Baby M was a big surrogacy story that the media loved to talk about because of the drama involved with it. The show Friends was the first time I saw surrogacy featured as a storyline on a television show. Pheobe carried triplets for her brother and at the end of the pregnancy begs to keep one of the three babies and gets told no. THIS is why we require all of our gestational surrogates to have had at least one child AND be done having children. Surrogates need to know what it’s like to have a child and not want anymore or these feelings can come up.

It has been refreshing to see surrogacy shined in a more positive and realistic light in recent years. TV shows and movies feature surrogacy story lines, although I often cringe at how they go about it, it’s nice to see it shown on TV with happy endings. The unhappy endings are rare and used to get ALL of the media’s attention. Hopefully television shows and movies will start consulting with surrogacy professionals and experienced surrogates so they can show a more accurate portrayal of how it all works.

I grew up watching Full House so when I heard the new series, Fuller House, was going to have a surrogacy story line, I had to watch it with my kids. As cheesy and hard to watch as that show is most of the time, I really liked how they portrayed the entire sequence of events from the time Stephanie found out she wouldn’t be able to carry a child to the birth. Stephanie’s friend and neighbor, Kimmy, stepped up to carry a child for Stephanie and Kimmy’s brother who are in a relationship. The show did a great job at showing Stephanie’s devastation when she found out she couldn’t carry a child. They showed Stephanie having a hard time watching Kimmy carry the child that she wanted to carry. They showed Stephanie’s guilt and urge to micro-manage at times. They also showed the happy ending of Kimmy giving birth to a healthy baby girl. Surrogacy is a roller-coaster and for a teeny bopper show, they did a pretty great job at showing that.

Many more shows have had surrogacy storylines as of late; Superstore, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Roseanne. Surrogacy is mentioned as a possible option for Kate on the very popular show, This is Us. There’s also some pretty disturbing portrayals of surrogacy like in The Handmaid’s Tale. I have tried to get through just one episode and I can’t make it through. It’s so hard to watch. I have a hard time even calling that surrogacy, it’s rape and kidnapping, but when I researched “shows portraying surrogacy”, that is the first one to pop up! There’s also all of the reality shows about surrogacy gone wrong all over the world. This is why we highly recommend using a reputable, U.S. based surrogacy agency to guide you during your surrogacy journey.

Then there’s all of the celebrities using surrogates that we hear about in the media. Gabrielle Union and Dwaye Wade had their first child born with a surrogate Nov. 7, 2018. Jessica Chastain and husband Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo welcomed their first child using a surrogate in 2017. Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West  welcomed their third child via surrogate.  Andy Cohen announced the birth of his son via surrogacy on February 4th, 2019.

Some other celebrity couples that you might be surprised used a surrogate are; Tyra Banks And Erik Asla, Sarah Jessica Parker And Matthew Broderick, Neil Patrick Harris And Adam Burtka, Jimmy Fallon And Nancy Juvonen, Kelsey And Camille Grammer, Angela Bassett And Courtney B. Vance, George Lucas And Mellody Hobson, Bill And Giuliana Rancic, Nicole Kidman And Keith Urban, Elizabeth Banks And Max Handelman, Robert De Niro And Grace Hightower, Ellen Pompeo And Chris Ivery, Elton John And David Furnish, and Chris And Deanna Daughtry.

If you want to learn more about surrogacy or want to apply to be a surrogate. Check out our website!

~ The Honest Surrogate