One surrogate mother who would do it again
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Your support makes all the difference.Sandra Duran is looking for a second British couple to whom she can give a baby she has not yet even conceived. Living in a suburb of Los Angeles, she is one of hundreds of Californian women who have agreed to be surrogate mothers. Two years ago she successfully carried a baby boy for an English couple.
"They flew over to attend the birth. It is magical to have a baby. But to be there with them, when I brought their baby into the world was wonderful. To see their joy was incredible.
"They are in their forties. They had tried everything, adoption, fertility treatment, IVF with donor eggs, but nothing was successful. My husband was initially sceptical but he was very supportive. Until he met them, he had never appreciated what it was like not to have children."
The English couple, comfortably off in the computer business, were, she says, wonderful, flying her to England during the pregnancy. They send her regular photographs and videos of the boy and intend to visit soon.
Was it hard to give up a child who was biologically hers? "He was not my child," says Mrs Duran, 33, whose husband Mark is a house painter and part-owns a pizza restaurant. "He was never my child. My husband and I have three beautiful children. I said that was it, no more children. My husband has had a vasectomy, so we were done.
"I have a couple of friends who have been unable to have children so I understood the problems. I have an easy time conceiving and delivering. My longest labour is three and a half hours and my shortest is 45 minutes. I typically have nine-pound babies."
Was the $12,000 payment an incentive? "It helped my husband. He was able to look at it as me doing a job or a service. He is very protective. He doesn't like anyone to take advantage of me."
Does she hanker now after the two year old: "No, I know my couple. They are bringing him up to know about me. It will not be some great surprise. He will not have to search for me. All his needs are fulfilled and I am only a phone call away. He doesn't even look like me. He's a carbon copy of his father."
And now she is determined to go through with a second surrogacy. "It gives you a real emotional high. You want to get that back."n
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