I'm Not Worried About Handing Over My Surrogate Baby

Its seen as the ultimate selfless act, but for Jenna, the decision to be a surrogate mother was a no-brainer

- Rhiannon Evans

OR MANY PEOPLE, being a surrogate f mother would be totally inconceivable. But for me, ever since I had my first child three years ago, it’s something that I’ve always believed I could do if there was good reason to. I genuinely enjoy being pregnant, I’m 29 so still fit and young, and the birth of both of my children felt manageable; or at least enough to consider doing it for somebody else.

And yet I wouldn’t have thought it would be my cousin Laura who I would help have a baby. I’m very close to her and I’ve known her partner Rhys since I was small – we were at nursery, school and then college together. But, until last year, I had no idea they were struggling to conceive.

I was pregnant with Florrie, my second daughter – who’s now 14 months – when Laura told me about their fertility problems. They’d already had several unsuccessful cycles of IVF, which had been heartbreaking, and when the last cycle also failed, they resolved to start looking at other options. The topic of surrogacy came into focus, and another family member told Laura to talk to me first. Our tentative conversations started from there.

I decided fairly quickly that if I could, I’d like to try and help them have a baby. But as I was pregnant, we agreed to wait and see how we felt after I’d had my child. We decided that if there’d been any complications during the birth, we would’ve shelved the idea altogether.

Luckily, my daughter’s birth was straightforward and I recovered quickly. So just six months after having her, we started fertility treatment for the surrogate pregnancy. I was on maternity leave and I figured it made sense to do it while my body was still in the zone.