A Story of Surrogacy For The Gay Couple

My name is Stephanie, and I am a senior operational trainer at United Healthcare. Another of my roles is gestational surrogate. Over 11 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, someone asked me if I was interest in being surrogate mother. Although I loved pregnant and was willing to help people, at that time, I did not accept the invitation. However, when my youngest child turned six, I thought I was prepared mentally to be a surrogate. Luckily, my two older daughters and my son were all positive about the idea.

Then I started to look for related information and assistance online. All the important preliminary steps were surprisingly very easy and quick. Before I knew it, I was ready to be matched with a couple. When I knew the couple were two intended dads, I felt a little strange at first, and my husband was hesitant, but later I talked it over with him and both of us were willing to meet them. The couple turned out to be very nice people, and we have many common interests. Shortly after that, we finished all the screenings, counseling, and evaluations.

In January 2014, I began to take fertility drugs to sync-up with the egg donor. The first egg donor they chose didn’t produce any eggs, so they switched to a new anonymous donor in May of 2014. We went to Ohio to do our first embryo transfer on June 20th. We tried twice, and the one on July 25th was successful. After the transfer, I felt it just like any other normal pregnancies. The only issue I worried about was that, at about 10 weeks, I had some spotting, but my doctors said I was fine. As with the pregnancy six years ago with my own son. This time I couldn’t stand the thought of eating meat, either.

During the whole process of pregnancy, I kept in touch with the couple by texting on my progress and provided updates about once a week. The two intended dads were with me at the first and second ultrasound. At the second ultrasound, they found out the sex of the baby. All in all, they were so nice and never “hovered.” My own kids have also met the couple, because I wanted them fully informed about what was going on. I think it was an amazing lesson for them. Not just the science behind surrogacy, but about human relationships.

On April 14th of 2015, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The dads flew to my place and not only were they in the delivery room, but also my husband witnessed the event. He even ended up acting like a photographer! The experience was so wonderful, gratifying, and liberating to me, and all great adjectives are a fit for it. It was a blessing!