A Surrogates Journey by Jenna Newell

When I was a teenager I never thought that I would want children, but I always knew that I wanted to experience pregnancy and birth. This was the start of my surrogacy journey and realising that this could potentially be something I could do.

Fast forward a couple of years and I had been told by a doctor that I would be lucky to be able to conceive naturally; I had starved my body of nutrients and hadn’t had a period for a while. It was in that moment that I realised that I did want children of my own and if I were to be lucky enough to conceive then I would definitely carry for another couple once my family was complete.

In 2014 I became pregnant with my eldest daughter; her younger sister made her arrival 2 and a half years later. Whilst I was pregnant with my youngest I started researching surrogacy more and was overwhelmed with all of the information available. Surrogacy is actually so much more common than I thought; I was chatting with surrogates and intended parents from the same town as me!

When I was approximately 6 months pregnant I “matched” with a couple to start the surrogacy process at the beginning of 2018. This would give me a few months to spend time with my daughters over Christmas and to help my body recover.

Soon the new year came around and so did the medication; I am a big needle phobic so this was the hardest part for me. Luckily, we were fortunate that our first cycle of treatment worked and I was pregnant with my first surrogate baby. We have had a few scares, with an early bleed and also a suspected heterotopic pregnancy - we were left in limbo for a couple of weeks as to whether or not I would need one of my Fallopian tubes removing or not. Thankfully everything sorted itself out and I am now 19 weeks pregnant! The support we have received from the Midwives and the hospital already have been outstanding; they already have a plan in place for recovery where we will be provided with two private rooms at the hospital so we don’t have to be on the wards and everyone will be made aware of the situation so that there is no need to repeat ourselves.

I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to help someone else; I absolutely love pregnancy and surprisingly labour too. It still seems surreal that my journey has started and I will be forever thankful to all of those who have supported me.

Thank you for sharing your story, Jenna xxx If you love how Jenna writes be sure to check out her blog >>> HERE!