Surrogacy questions - feeling overwhelmed

[bugalugsmel]

I have a beautiful 8 month old DD, but following a string of pregnancy complications, I am not allowed to fall pregnant again. I'm incredibly grateful for my beautiful DD but I don't feel like our family is complete and I would love to give her a sibling.

So DH and I are considering using a surrogate to help us achieve our dream, but it all seems so daunting and confusing. I rang MelbIVF and MonashIVF today and they are sending me out some information to read through - they both definitely felt that I was eligible to apply for their surrogacy programs - but it all seems so clinical.

So I guess I'd like to hear some good (and the bad) surrogacy stories from readers. How did you feel when starting the process? How did you cope with the magnitude of it all? How much did it end up costing you? How did you find your surrogate? Unfortunately, we don't have any family who could help us out. We want to keep things within Vic.

Thanks for reading xx

[TrishStar]

Hi bugalugsmel,
I have a two year old son and am going through surrogacy at the moment. We delivered our daughter last year and she was stillborn as a result of a rupture, and left me unable to have anymore kids.
My sister offered to carry a child, which we accepted, but because we live in the NT we can't do it here so we were accepted to Canberra. So far we have only done the first stage and it has cost us $13k. All our info is now with the Ethics committee so we are waiting to hear back from them.
I am actually tracking all my costs down item by item, so I know what we spend. And then I have the info there, if anyone else in the NT wants to look at surrogacy down the track, they can use it as a guide for themselves.
I am finding the whole process a little frustrating as no one is getting back to me on when the ethics committee is meeting again. I don't think these people realise how gut wrenching it is waiting for them to tell you the fate of your future.
Good luck with your journey. I hope you are able to find someone to help you expand your family.
Take care
Trish xo