Surrogate mum gives gift of life (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Surrogate mum gives gift of life

Surrogate mum Jo Duke from Draycott Foliat Picture Ref: 99252-18A SWINDON woman who became a surrogate mum has said she was simply a babysitter for nine months.

Jo Duke, from Draycott Foliat, near Chiseldon, gave birth to a healthy baby boy in June.

"It all went fine. It was a fantastic experience," she said.

And she said the Suffolk couple, Rita and Burcin, were thrilled to be parents.

Jo, 36, and her husband, Steve, suffered from unexplained infertility for three years when trying to start their family.

"We have a small appreciation of what people are going through and that is why I did it. A lot of my friends have said they think I'm mad wanting to get pregnant again, but that's because they all have their families and would not want more children."

The couples met through Surrogacy UK, an organisation that supports childless couples.

They became friends and after two years Jo asked them if they would like her help.

"We are all very close, and you couldn't do it if you didn't get on with people.

"It took five months for me to become pregnant and then the couple attends all the appointments and scans so you need to get on well."

There are two types of surrogacy.

Jo was a straight surrogate, which means her egg was fertilised by Burchin's sperm through artificial insemination.

Host surrogacy is when a surrogate mother carries a child conceived by its biological parents through IVF.

Jo and Steve said they were honest with their four children from the start.

"Twenty years ago people used to say the baby had died after it was born, and that is just wrong," she said.

"My nine-year-old can tell you all there is to know about surrogacy.

"It is a big commitment, not just for the woman but also the whole family and mine are 100 per cent behind me."

Jo, who used to be a foster parent, said she never considered the possibility of not being able to give up the baby once it had been born.

"People always ask what was it like to give up the baby? But it wasn't giving it up.

"It never was my baby. I was just looking after it for nine months while the parents were unable to."

Jo, who appeared on the BBC1 programme Inside Out West last night, feels attitudes towards surrogacy in Britain need to change.

Kim Cotton caused controversy when she became the first woman in the UK to be financially compensated for being a surrogate mother in 1985.

"Everybody still thinks of Kim Cotton and how she was paid," said Jo.

"Most surrogate mothers are paid expenses for maternity clothes by the couple and then receive maternity pay from their employers."

She added that both she and Surrogacy UK did not want surrogate mums in Britain to be paid.

"In America women are already paid to be surrogate mums and we don't want to go down that route, it should be expenses only.

"By accepting payment it would become a supply and demand situation and only the rich would be able to afford it.

"Who's to say a rich person would make a better parent?"

And she has already met the next couple she is going to help. "We have known them for about a year now and it will be a case of starting it and then see how long it takes."

Stephanie Tye