S3 Episode 9. Altruistic Surrogacy. When it takes a village to create a child.

After the birth of her second child, Anna knew that her family was complete. But just as strongly, she knew that she wanted to be pregnant again. Since she was a teenager, Anna had been drawn to the idea of surrogacy, and the chance to give the ultimate gift to another family. With the support of her family, Anna embarked on a long, complicated, emotional, and ultimately life-changing experience. After meeting couple Matt and Brendan who desperately wished to have a child of their own, Anna underwent IVF, and carried her ‘surro-bub’ , a baby genetically unrelated to her, for nine months. Finally, she birthed Baker at home and then passed him into the arms of his intended parents.

However the journey did not end here. For Anna, expressing breastmilk and navigating complex physical postpartum changes meant that whilst her brain knew intellectually that Baker was loved, safe, and where he needed to be, her body and her hormones were grieving a child that was no longer physically with her. Anna describes the sense of loss and rollercoaster of emotions that cultivated in a diagnosis of postpartum depression. Now on the road to recovery, Anna is able to reflect with love and pride on her incredibly selfless gift that resulted in a child and a family that could not have existed without her.