This Morning: Mother who is ‘addicted’ to surrogacy says she’d ‘do it forever’
Mother who is ‘addicted’ to being a surrogate reveals she would ‘do it forever’ if she could – as she prepares to give birth to her FIFTH baby for another couple
- Surrogate Rachel Westbury is 34 weeks pregnant with her fourth surrogate child
- The mum-of-one says she would do surrogacy ‘forever’ if her body would let her
- She now runs her own surrogacy agency finding solutions for childless couples
- She was praised by This Morning fans who called her ‘brave’ for what she does
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A mother is acting as a surrogate for a fourth time has said she will continue ‘do it forever’ – or as long as her body lets her.
Rachel Westbury, who is 34 weeks pregnant with her fifth surrogate child, said she ‘can’t put into words’ the happiness she feels when she hands over a baby to its new family.
Speaking on This Morning on Monday, Rachel, who did not disclose her age or where she is from on the show and who has a 13-year-old son of her own, revealed she’d endured an ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage to have her surrogate children, but that she would still do it again if she could.
Viewers praised Rachel – who is the biological mother of all of the children she has carried for other families – who called her ‘brave’ for doing something selfless for childless couples.
Rachel Westbury is on her fourth surrogate pregnancy but said she would ‘do it forever’ if her body would let her. Pictured: Rachel on This Morning on Monday
Rachel, whose surrogate children are all biologically hers, said that despite the complications in her pregnancies she would happily do it again.
She said: ‘If my body lets me. It’s hard work. I lost quite a lot of weight last year and we went through lots of ups and downs to get to where we are; an ectopic, this was a twin pregnancy but it vanished, it’s been ups and down but at the same time it’s amazing how a woman’s body forgets.
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‘Even though I’ve had so many I forget what I went through. If I could I’d do it forever, but I think my friends and family would disown me because of me being moany.’
Rachel, who now runs her own surrogacy agency, had always been interested in the prospect of surrogacy but it wasn’t until she watched a documentary about it that she decided to get in touch with an agency.
Her story was praised by viewers who called her ‘brave’ for doing something selfless for childless couples (pictured)
WHAT ARE THE LAWS ON SURROGACY?
The laws of surogacy differ from country to country.
In the US the laws suffer from state to state; some states have written legislation while others have common laws stemming from court decisions.
For example, California is accepting of surrogacy agreements and upholds agreements that include LGBT people.
However, others are stricter, like Michigan, which forbids absolutely all surrogacy agreements, and fines people $500,000 for entering into agreements.
In the UK surrogates are the legal mother of any child they carry, unless they sign a parental order transferring their rights to the intended parents when they give birth.
The birth mother always has the right to keep her child, even if they are not genetically related.
It’s illegal to pay a surrogate in the UK, except for medical expenses.
Within a year she was pregnant with twins but six weeks after signing the contract the agency went bust.
‘We kind of muddled through together,’ said Rachel of the process.
‘None of us knew what we were doing but we got there,’ she said.
She went on to do it two more times and is currently pregnant with her fourth surrogate baby.
When This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby asked if it was hard to hand over her children, Rachel said nothing could compare to the fulfillment she feels when the families get their baby.
She said: ‘I’m not the most maternal of people, I love my son with all my heart but I’m not maternal really. The journey was not set out for me, the journey wasn’t for me to have another baby, it was always going to be their baby so in your head you kind of detach yourself away from it.
‘I didn’t know how I was going to react at the end but I’ve got the best friends and family around me and support and once you hand the babies over its nothing like it.’
‘That’s fulfilment enough seeing them all happy, it’s amazing you can’t put it into words,’ she added.
Rachel said the fulfillment she gets from giving childless couples her babies was stronger than her pain handing over her children. Pictured: Rachel on This Morning with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby
Many This Morning viewers took to Twitter to praise Rachel for her story.
One tweeted: ‘All the respect for this lady Helping other people get there happy ending [sic].’
‘I think this women is amazing! I couldn’t do what she’s doing thoo! [sic]’ another posted.
A third wrote: ‘Amazing woman, offering her body for people who can’t have children themselves!’
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