Let's talk about…surrogacy!

It’s almost 2015, but we, at Shared Conception, realize that surrogacy can somewhat still be a “mysterious” topic or carries a stigma. People sometimes don’t know how to react when their friend or loved one says they used or are currently using a surrogacy.  As a result, Jimmy Fallon’s recent announcement that both his daughters were born via surrogacy, has revived the conversation about infertility, intended parents and surrogates.  Here’s Sarah Elizabeth Richard’s, time.com, perspective.

 “It’s no wonder then that talk-show host Jimmy Fallon waited two weeks after the birth of his daughter Winnie Rose to reveal that she was carried by a surrogate. “My wife and I had been trying for a while to have a baby,” Fallon told Today’s Savannah Guthrie on Friday morning. “We tried a bunch of things. So we had a surrogate.”

Fallon’s openness came as a surprise, considering that most celebrities have been notoriously mum on the subject. Who can blame them? Remember all the rampant speculating about whether Kate Middleton had infertility problems? And — gasp! — was Baby George conceived via IVF?

To date, Hollywood stars having baby-making troubles haven’t received much public sympathy, amid criticism of being able to “buy” their way out of fertility problems with expensive medical help that many Americans can’t afford.

But the narrative turns extra nasty when other people’s reproductive parts, such as rented wombs or donor eggs, are involved. When actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman revealed they had used surrogates, they were accused of hiring these other women in order to spare their own bodies from the ravages of pregnancy — as if these women chose this route for cosmetic reasons, when both had publicly shared their battles with infertility.”

Surrogacy allows intended parents to have the kids they have always dreamed of and the family they had hoped to create and raise. Surrogacy mothers are the women who successfully carry these babies while managing their own personal  lives and families. Surrogacy agencies, such as Shared Conception, match and facilitate gestational surrogacy arrangements with surrogate mothers and intended parents. There is a beauty in creating families that our surrogacy agency anticipates and enjoys. We encourage these positive surrogacy conversations and celebrity  transparency as we move forward into the next year. Happy holidays!