Stephanie
What month and year was/were your surrogate baby born?
April 2021
What originally inspired you to look into surrogacy?
I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and always had easy pregnancies so started looking into surrogacy.
What was your favorite or most memorable moment during this whole process?
Seeing the IP's hold their baby.
What was the most unexpected part of this process?
The waiting during each process before transfer.
How was the matching process?
The matching process was really easy.
How was the pregnancy and how involved were the Intended Parents during the pregnancy?
The pregnancy was the easiest of all of my pregnancies and the IP's text every week and came to all appointments that were allowed.
How did you talk to other people about the process, like your friends and family? Even strangers?
I explained to friends and family what I was doing and why and answered any questions they had. Strangers seemed to have more questions than my friends and family did but everyone was supportive.
How was your delivery and post-pregnancy?
Delivery didn't go as planned but wasn't bad and both me and baby were healthy. Post-pregnancy was super easy, except for the 5 days of excruciating engorgement.
What were your feelings when you saw the IP(s) hold their baby/babies for the first time?
I was so happy for them and had no feelings that I was missing anything.
What did your kid(s) and/or partner say when meeting the baby?
My kids never got to meet the baby and my partner just stated how it looked like the IP's.
What were some of the benefits of working with an agency?
Letting them handle any discrepancies and all of the paperwork.
What words of wisdom would you share with other/newer gestational carriers?
Try to really think about what you want out of the journey and with the IP's before starting and matching with them.
If you decided to be a gestational carrier again, what would be the reason?
To be able to give another woman the ability to be a mother.