The surrogacy relationship that ‘saved’ Sylva’s life after pregnancy heartache

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The state government is in the middle of a broad review of surrogacy laws. It is grappling with the complexities of co-parenting; the families created through surrogacy; and how best to protect the rights of the children involved. The progress comes as one couple named the arrival of a surrogate daughter after a long and painful fertility journey.

Transcript

00:00They met as strangers on a surrogacy Facebook page.

00:0718 months later, Michaela Roy gave birth to Silver and Kim Lloyd's baby, Delilah.

00:12Doesn't even feel real, does it?

00:15No, no at all.

00:17The Lloyds had almost given up on becoming parents after losing their premature son, Roman,

00:22and then needing a hysterectomy.

00:25Michaela saved my life. My heart was broken.

00:29Michaela has six children of her own and has been a surrogate before.

00:35I just needed to know that the people that I did it for loved each other and wanted a baby.

00:41And so I saw that in the way that they looked at each other.

00:45Unusually, the midwife at the birth is also a surrogate.

00:49She's currently 35 weeks along with her second surrogate pregnancy.

00:54It just felt so good being able to, you know, grow a baby

00:59and see the joy and the love on her parents' faces.

01:05While baby Delilah had two surrogates bring her into the world,

01:08this situation is extremely rare.

01:11The red tape, high costs and legal complexities

01:14make it a difficult journey for both surrogates and prospective parents.

01:19Surrogates in Australia can't be paid for carrying a baby,

01:23but parents cover all pregnancy-related costs, including IVF treatments.

01:28The Lloyds IVF bill alone is around $50,000.

01:32Because I don't have a uterus, we don't get any Medicare rebates,

01:35which doesn't seem fair.

01:37It's estimated there are around 100 surrogate births in Australia every year.

01:43The Lloyds would like more people to be given this chance.

01:46You start a whole other family for someone and you can see,

01:50like, we'll be grandparents now.

01:52In the meantime, they're just grateful to hold their baby daughter.

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