Serial Surrogacy is breaking all myths and coming out in the open where curious people are trying to determine its advantages and disadvantages for all it is worth. Many women are prepared to carry someone else’s child and then give him/her away after birth. One noted woman is Jill Hawkins, a 49-year-old British woman who gave birth to more than 10 children before she reached 50. Is it really possible for every woman? Not many women are willing to become surrogate mothers, a vessel to produce a stranger’s child.
To feel the child growing in the womb, the movement of the children, the pains of childbirth and the overwhelming desire to hold the child in your arms – you have to give up that last, but most cherished feeling if you are going to be a surrogate mother. A surrogate mother will have to “rent” her womb so a childless couple can have their own children. The surrogate mother can donate her eggs, or she will allow the couple’s egg and sperm fusion to grow in her womb. It is not an easy task to go through with all the sickness and illness, joint pains and back pains, but for some women the pains are like an addiction.
Says Jill Hawkins
“I never want to keep them. I am not maternal and very selfish. Not many woman can give babies away. It’s very emotional giving birth. The one thing you are screaming to do is to hold that baby. It is an overwhelming feeling and you have to be strong to counter that.”
Giving birth to someone else’s child and not holding her as your own is indeed a depressing feeling. You go through all the pain of childbirth, and then what happens in the end? You have to suffer through heartbreak at all levels – giving away the child, knowing that a child that grew in your womb is living somewhere, and then live with the depression that sets in after that. It is really hard to imagine and really, the women who do that are great, they are great enough to help childless couples. People do it for close relatives, but to do it for strangers, not once, but consecutively, that is something that deserves mention and a salute!
Hundreds of women come to US every year with the hope of meeting with surrogate mothers and realizing their dream of having children. The laws in US (especially in Illinois, Massachusetts and California) are pretty lax towards women seeking surrogacy as means of making money. Military wives see surrogacy as means of supplementary income and this is becoming a growing trend in the US. It is believed that more than 1,400 babies are born through this method every year in the US and the numbers are expected to grow. About half of these children are born for international parents. Childless couples are coming from everywhere in the world, including China and Turkey, and are seeing America as a solution to their problem. However, many people are not keen on that idea because babies born in the US soil would be US citizens by birthright and this possibility has deterred many couples. In UK and Europe, including Serbia and Italy, commercial surrogacy is not legal, and if anybody practices the same, it would be a crime.