Surrogacy: The inside story
Radio star and best friend tell how it feels having a baby for someone else
Broadcaster Toni Street and the surrogate mother of her next child have opened up about how surrogacy works. Street and husband Matt France announced their surrogacy plans earlier this year, after Street found she could not carry any more children because of an auto-immune disease.
But thanks to her childhood friend Sophie Braggins, who offered to be a surrogate for the couple, they will welcome their third child in August.
Street and Braggins spoke about the arrangement on radio station The Hits yesterday morning, with the surrogate fielding tough questions about how the process works.
Just before flying to Auckland for the 30-week scan yesterday, Braggins was questioned about her attachment to the baby, how the pregnancy was going, and the associated costs.
Braggins, who has two children, said she was feeling good about bearing a child for her best friend, but occasionally thought of the child as her own.
“I do have moments where he does feel like mine. I think it is just biological because he is growing inside me and although my logical side says this is Toni and Matt’s baby, I have moments when I think of him and think, ‘I love you little boy.’ I am really happy with feeling like that and I know where he is going in the end.”
Street said she was thankful her friend had such feelings towards the baby “because it means she wants to care for this baby and love it like I do”.
The Hits broadcaster explained the process of surrogacy, saying the egg was donated by her, the sperm by her husband and Braggins acted as the “carrier” or the “oven”.
Asked whether she felt nervous about the birth and handing the child over, Braggins said she was excited and looking forward to the birth.
“For a number of reasons, one because I get to pass this beautiful little boy on to Toni and Matt, but also then my responsibility is gone and I have done my job and it is back to regular life for me.”
The women laughed about the size of the baby, with Braggins saying she thought it had a big head.
Braggins said she had been treating the pregnancy just like her own, and was careful what she ate and drank.
“I am so worried of mucking up in some way so I am desperate for some soft cheeses, sushi and maybe a glass of wine a little later down the track but I have been pretty strict.”
The women also discussed the ins and outs of the finances surrounding surrogacy.
HWatch the video interview at nzherald.co.nz
Braggins said the process hadn’t cost her anything, other than her body, while Street and France were covering all costs associated with the pregnancy.
“At the beginning there were all the obvious costs, like $12,000 for the IVF, $4000 for the obstetrician, and then there is accommodation for when Soph is up here and those sorts of things,” Street said.
“You actually have to be quite on to it to remember all the day-to-day costs because you are not living it like you are when you are pregnant.
“The entire cost from start to finish we think is around $30,000 and that includes the IVF, the implantation, the cost of the lawyers and counsellors.”
Street was diagnosed with ChurgStrauss syndrome in 2015 and, after two years of treatment, is in remission, but the syndrome can reappear without warning and a doctor told her last year pregnancy would be too risky.
Street and France, both 34, are already parents to two daughters, Juliette, 5, and Mackenzie, 21⁄