Special delivery

The Feed on SBS is airing a special episode on surrogacy during a global pandemic. Geelong-based mum-of-two Kath Wood, who features in the show, shares her story with Danielle McGrane.

K ath Wood is a woman with a big heart.

When the Geelong-based mum-of-two heard about people who were struggling to have children, she knew she wanted to help.

“I was donating my eggs for years and surrogacy was always on my mind, it was always something I wanted to do,” Wood said.

“I had a recipient for my eggs who found it really hard to fall pregnant. We went through so many cycles and my next step was to offer to be her surrogate. Luckily, she didn’t need it.”

But after that experience, she started hearing about more people who needed help.

“When I stopped donating my eggs I was reading all the stories of people needing a surrogate, and it felt like an easy choice,” she said.

“When you’re among people who are just trying, and are so desperate to have a child, and you’re reading their stories, I think anyone who was reading them would be able to sympathise.”

Wood joined a surrogacy forum, where she met Brisbane couple Ben and Terry.

“I wasn’t planning on going interstate, but I clicked with them so well and it just seemed right,” Wood said.

She had a healthy baby girl for the couple a few years ago, so when the time came to expand their family again, they turned to Wood.

Everything was going well, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

SBS show The Feed follows Wood’s story as part of their upcoming special ‘Surrogacy in the Time of COVID’.

Wood’s story is just one of several featured in the show, which looks at surrogacy both here and overseas.

“When it all kicked off in March I was pretty blasé about it. I thought, ‘Oh, this will be over and in a couple of months it will be fine’,” she said.

The travel restrictions soon started to have an effect on all their antenatal plans.

“They weren’t able to come to scans and I wasn’t able to go up there for a baby shower. But we thought, ‘OK, we can’t do this but it’s fine. It won’t affect the birth, this will all be over by August, of course it will.’ And then we got locked down again and I realised things were going to be really different,” she said.

There have been so many factors to consider throughout the pandemic for Wood. Who would be the caretaker of the baby in her first few days of life was important for both Wood and the parents, as it is such a crucial time for bonding.

“Up until the week of the birth, the hospital was saying

Ben and Terry wouldn’t be allowed to be there, that they could only come and see us for an hour,” Wood said.

“In my mind, the worst case scenario was that the boys wouldn’t be able to be there at all and I’d be taking care of her.”

She wants people to watch this show and to discover there are ways for them to grow their families by using surrogates here in Australia.

“It is an option in Australia. A lot of people, and women who are able to be a surrogate, don’t think it’s legal or that they can do it, or that there’s a need for it,” she said.

“They just think it’s impossible to find a surrogate in Australia and think that they have to go overseas. So it’s really important to share that.”

The Feed: Surrogacy in the Time of COVID, Tuesday, 10pm, SBS