|
Looking for a
Surrogate Mother or an egg donor?
This book
is a moving real-life account of one woman's struggle
with infertility and her journey through surrogacy to
have the family she desperately wanted.
Click here
for more details
Latest Surrogacy News
Surrogate couples 'make better parents'
Monday, 1 July, 2002, 00:09 GMT 01:09
UK BBC
News
Women who use surrogate mothers to have children tend
to become very loving and doting parents, research
suggests.
There have been concerns about the impact of surrogacy
arrangements on the well-being of children and families.
But the annual conference of the European Society of
Human Reproduction and Embryology in Vienna heard that
these fears seem to be largely unfounded.
The first study of its kind into surrogacy found that
mothers who had relied on another women to carry their
child tended to show more warmth towards their babies
than mothers whose child was conceived naturally.
Both the mother and father tended to have better
parenting skills than parents in non-surrogate families.
And the babies themselves show no differences in their
temperament and behaviour when compared with
non-surrogate babies.
Nor do there seem to be problems when the surrogate
mothers hand over the babies to the mothers who have
commissioned the surrogacy.
The research was carried out by a team from the Family
and Child Psychology Research Centre at City University,
London.
Controversial procedure
They studied 43 families with a child born through
surrogacy arrangements, and compared them with 51
families with a child conceived through IVF with donated
eggs, and 86 families with a naturally conceived child.
This first phase of the study looked at families when
the children were aged between nine and 12 months.
There are two types of surrogacy:
-
partial (or straight) surrogacy where the surrogate
mother and the commissioning father are the genetic
parents of the child and conception is through
artificial insemination
-
full (or host) surrogacy where the commissioning
mother and father are the genetic parents and
conception is achieved through IVF
Of the 43 surrogate families in the study, nearly
two-fifths involved full surrogacy and just over
three-fifths involved partial surrogacy.
Two-thirds of the surrogate mothers were unknown to the
commissioning couple prior to the surrogacy arrangement,
while the remaining third of surrogate mothers were
either a sister or a friend of the commissioning mother.
This was closely comparable to the egg donor families.
The researchers questioned the commissioning mothers
about the surrogate's reaction to handing over the
child, about their own relationship with the surrogate
following the birth and about their attitudes towards
the surrogate's involvement in the child's life.
False assumptions
Researcher Fiona MacCallum said: "It is often assumed
that surrogate mothers will have difficulties handing
the child over following the birth.
"In fact, we found only one instance of the surrogate
having slight doubts at this time, with all other
mothers reporting no problems.
"Since the birth of the child, the majority of the
families had kept in touch with the surrogate to some
extent and 70% saw her at least once every couple of
months.
"Ninety per cent of commissioning mothers reported that
they still had a very good relationship with the
surrogate, and no mothers described any major conflict
or hostility between the commissioning couple and the
surrogate."
The researchers also found that surrogacy mothers were
much more likely to tell friends and family about the
arrangement than were women who opted for IVF egg
donation.
All the surrogacy mothers intended to tell their
children about their conception, but only 57% of the egg
donor mothers said they definitely planned to tell their
children.
Ms MacCallum said: "The findings of this study are
generally reassuring with respect to relationships with
surrogate mothers, quality of parenting and the
temperament of the child.
"There is no evidence so far to support the concerns
that have been voiced about the practice of surrogacy.
"However, these children were still in infancy and it
remains to be seen how these families will change as the
children grow up."
back to top |
