Has anyone ever been a surrogate?

I've done an egg donation already and am considering either Traditional Surrogacy via IVF (possible AI at a clinic) or Gestational Surrogacy after college but I'm not sure if I want to do it before I have a child or after I have one. I definitely want my partner to support me 100% as well.

I recently have turned in my surrogate packet and am waiting for the psych exam to be set up. Apparently this process will move quickly if someone chooses my profile so I will let you know how it goes as things progress.

I've been asked by a friend of mine who is gay, and in a serious relationship if I'll consider a surrogate pregnancy for them when they feel the timing is right. It will both depend on their timing and what is going on in my life, but I'd be very open to it, since I know I would get to see the child and I trust them to explain the circumstances. How just because I carried the child, I'm not the mother, but darnit if I won't weasle my way in as an auntie LOL! Kally calls them her uncles, so it's perfectly within my right LOL!

I have read that a lot of times you won't be considered for surrogacy unless you've had a child of your own, but I'm not sure how that applies to either birthmoms or women who want to carry a child for someone but not parent? I haven't looked into it much, I will more when they begin to approach me.

It's generally if you have no children/births (no pregnancy history really) then they're wary in case you have some kind of underlying condition or you end up being prone to something. Also if you have no children you're a higher risk for keeping the child because you didn't know what it would be like and then you can't bear to give it up. This generally only applies if you use your own eggs.

However I have known of a couple of childless surrogates who donated eggs and then did traditional surrogacies (your own eggs their sperm), but since they were proven egg donors it proved they could part with their genetic material.

As much as I do not enjoy pregnancy I'd do it for someone I was very close to, because I would want a role in the child's life.

The agency I'm going through will only accept people if they are caring for at least one child they gave birth to. So if a woman has only birthed once and placed that child for adoption, the agency wouldn't accept her. I'm sure this isn't the same for all fertility agencies, though.

I would defenitely become a surrogate if I was asked. I think I would like to have children first though. I say that b/c I know how bad I want children in the future and I think that if I were to become a surrogate before I have kids of my own that I would really want to keep the baby. After I have children though I am totally open for it.

my sister can't have children of her own due to a heart problem and i always told her i would carry a child for her in a heartbeat as well. nice to know other mamas have thought about it too...

erika - keep us up to date as to how things go. i think its awesome your going to do it!!!

Surragacy makes me kind of nervous. Granted, I don't know that much about it, but in a women's health class i took last year we watched this documentary about a surragate mother and it was very, very strange. The birth mother (the one carrying the baby) basically ended up being treated like crap by the bio parents. The biol parents tried to pressure her into going to the doctors they liked and giving birth in the hospital they wanted just becuase it was more convienent for them. Because they biol parents pay for all the dr. related stuff, the birth mother felt uncomfortable making all her own decisions. Also, at the birth they basically had the camera on the birth mom's vagina the whole time and didn't ever acknowledge that she was there as a person. When the doctors suggested that the birth mom take something to speed up labor the biol parents got really pissed that the birth mom didn't want to (and if i remember correctly the birth mom ended up doing what they asked). Even after the birth they had arranged that the birth mother would get a few minutes with the baby, but instead they basically took the baby right away and nobody even thanked her.
I am sure that surragacy can be better than this (especially if you know who you are working with), but i would not be able to carry a baby for someone else. I would feel too much like an incubator.

Well, in most respects I will feel like an incubator (but that's fine with me). But I'll also be doing something for a person or family that they are not able to do themselves for whatever reason, and I don't believe I'm the #1 most important person in this process, although I do want respect from the IPs.

I know that I'm personally allowed to go to whatever doctor/clinic/hospital I want. I'll be going to my regular family doctor that I've seen since I was a little kid after the green light is given (12 weeks...??). If a woman isn't comfortable with being assertive and taking charge of her own L&D (the intended parents really do not have any legal say in how the woman labors and delivers as far as I know...), then yeah, that sucks for her, but there are tons of questions we're asked and stipulations we're allowed to state before getting involved with a given family. That's why we're allowed to have phone meetings or meet in person and see how the family acts toward us before getting involved with them, so we're not just blindly matched up with a family who we may have nothing in common with in terms of goals for a future pregnancy.

Not to mention, some people don't want friendly relationships with the intended parents or with the surrogate (we are able to state what kind of relationship we want with the IPs if any). I personally feel that the IPs' feelings are more important than mine in many ways. They are probably going through a tougher time emotionally with the surrogate process than I am, and I will try to be sensitive to their needs (within reason), but medical choices are mine only, regardless of what they say, when it comes to the L&D.