Replacement mom due to Corona: surrogate mother cannot hand over child

Replacement mom by Corona
Surrogate mother cannot hand over child – and now takes care of herself

© Screenshot “Good Morning America”

Emily Chrislip was actually supposed to carry the couple’s baby to term. But then the coronavirus came – and suddenly she had to decide whether she could look after the little one for a whole year.

25-year-old American Emily Chrislip is happily married and has a young son. Since she is young and healthy, she decided to help other couples who also want to become parents but cannot make it the natural way. She got in touch with an agency that brings couples from all over the world together with American surrogate mothers (the surrogate mother principle is not allowed everywhere, but it is in the USA).

She was soon passed on to a couple from China who dearly wanted offspring. Emily had a fertilized egg implanted in the woman and actually became pregnant successfully. Nine months later, she gave birth to a baby girl. The problem: a global pandemic had broken out in those nine months. It was impossible for the couple from China to enter the United States, for Emily and the baby impossible to fly to China. A solution had to be found before parents and children could come together.

The baby should not be cared for by strangers

Emily and her husband Brandon quickly decided that they could take care of the little girl (whose name was not mentioned due to personality reasons) until then. “We had the feeling that it was just the right thing,” says the 25-year-old on the American TV show “Good Morning America”. “We didn’t like the idea of ​​any nanny agency taking care of them when we were perfectly able to do so.”

The surrogate mother explains: “We have a loving family and I’ve already carried it. So we just said: Come on, we’ll take care of it.” Since then, the parents in China and the couple in the USA have been in constant video chat contact, at least via screen they have already got to know their little daughter – and their parents. The couple from China assumes all the costs that the Chrislips have with the baby and pays them for the care. Still, they would like to hug their child themselves soon.

Surrogate mother hopes for a stress-free transition

As soon as the virus allows it, the parents will fly to the USA and spend some time there to allow them to get used to each other slowly and as stress-free as possible. Emily Chrislip says: “I make up all the different scenarios in my head and it makes me emotional when I think about it. I can only imagine what it will be like for her to meet her child for the first time. It has to be be as if I would not see my child for the first time until a year after it was born. ”

From the beginning, the surrogate mother tried to raise the little girl as part of the family, but not to see her as her own daughter. “I see her as something like my cousin’s child,” she explains. “I care for her. I love her and will always be there for her, but I know that she does not belong to me, but to her parents.” Still, she is of course nervous and hopes that the change will go well for the child when the biological parents take them to China. “I hope that we can help her get used to them and teach them what little pointers she gives us and what they mean, what their daily routine is like. That we can just be helpful.”

Source: “Good Morning America”

This article originally appeared on stern.de.

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