Do maternity benefits apply in surrogacy case?

A reader writes: I am having a baby by a surrogate. Am I entitled to maternity leave and the related benefits?

Linda Stewart, partner and head of employment at Simpson Millar law firm, says:
As the law stands, unfortunately the answer is no. Entitlement to either maternity leave or statutory maternity pay does not extend to people who have a baby through a surrogate – these benefits are available exclusively to employees who give birth.

However, there is a growing wave of people who believe that the law on surrogacy is in urgent need of reform, especially as mothers whose babies are born through surrogacy require just as much support as birth mothers do. What’s more, both leave and pay are available to qualifying adoptive parents.
If, after the birth, you plan to adopt the baby through an approved adoption agency then you might be entitled to adoption leave and pay. In order to qualify you must have worked for your employer for at least six months by the end of the week in which you are notified by the adoption agency that the child will be placed with you. Adoption leave can be taken for up to 52 weeks and adoption pay is available for 39 weeks – some employers allow more.

Read more.....http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2fc1b4ac-6df3-11e1-b98d-00144feab49a.html#axzz1wSFvqCm1

Neil Patrick Harris opens up on surrogacy

Neil Patrick Harris has opened up his home to Oprah Winfrey as part of a revealing new interview about fatherhood.
The How I Met Your Mother star and his partner David Burtka, who are parents to 19-month-old twins Gideon and Harper, invited the media mogul to their sprawling estate for the TV chat.
The couple sits in the backyard talking about their decision to have children together, insisting they thought about long and hard before deciding on surrogacy.
For Surrogacy service

Read more...http://www.calgarysun.com/2012/05/31/neil-patrick-harris-opens-up-on-surrogacy

More Couples Using Surrogates To Start Families

CASTLE ROCK -- Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker did it. Now E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic and her husband Bill are the latest Hollywood couple to use a surrogate mom to expand their family.

Their public journey is opening doors for other couples in need and moms who want to help them. Moms like Kendra Landrey.

"It was always in my heart to do it," said Kendra, a mother from Castle Rock. "I told my husband if somebody ever needed my uterus, I'm game."

 Kendra is a mother of four. With three boys, a girl, and two dogs, the Landrey's already have their hands full. But her husband Arthur Landrey knows Kendra has always wanted to help other women.

"Of course it was okay. It's something she's always wanted to do and I wasn't going to get in the way of that," said Arthur.

agency, Kendra was matched up with another couple. Before the whole process could begin, Kendra had to go through a series of tests.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires potential surrogates to be tested to rule out infectious disease. Then there are guidelines from the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

"We want to make sure they've had at least one full-term pregnancy and it's easy for them to have babies. No complications," said Dr. William Schoolcraft, director of Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine.

For Surrogacy Service

Read more...http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31049289/detail.html

The Insider talking about Celebrity Surrogacy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hzXk9sA7osw

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Jennifer LopeZ Looking into surrogacy!

JLo is exploring the idea of having a surrogate child with her man Casper Smart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H51TkAKXTK0&feature=player_embedded






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Surrogate mum's toughest journey

BUNDABERG mother-of-two Melissah Smith knows the joys of being a parent, but she knows many others will never get that chance.
That is why when she gives birth to a baby girl on Thursday, she will hand her over to a New South Wales husband and wife who are unable to conceive their own child.

Mrs Smith is a surrogate, a woman who has given up more than a year of her life to go through testing, psychiatric assessments, nine months of pregnancy and finally birth, all so two strangers can have a family.

"My auntie could never have kids and did IVF in the 80s, but she still never fell pregnant, so it was something I always wanted to do," she said.

Mrs Smith first came into contact with the intended parents last year after leaving her name with a law firm in Brisbane. Months later, after plenty of tests and consideration, she became pregnant using the couple's egg and sperm.

"I had never met them before all this started, but now we speak nearly every day," she said.

"The first time I met them, it was like I already knew them - I think we were meant to meet each other."
Mrs Smith, who has two boys aged 11 and six, said under the Surrogacy Act, she could at any time choose to keep the child.

"Even though it's all their DNA and they have spent tens of thousands of dollars, I could just turn around and say, 'I'm keeping this baby'," she said.
For Surrogacy Service

Read more...http://www.news-mail.com.au/story/2012/05/19/surrogate-mum-set-for-lifes-toughest-journey/

O brave new world that has such Romneys in it

When presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's eldest son, Tagg Romney, 42, and his wife, Jen, 39, posted a birth announcement for healthy, happy twin boys on their Facebook page, they demonstrated how mainstream in-vitro fertilization births have become. They gave "a special thanks to our gestational surrogate who made this possible for us."

The couple has six children; Politico reports that, though there was no surrogate involved in the older three children's births, the couple used the same surrogate for a now-2-year-old son.

E! anchor Giuliana Rancic just announced that, after years of trying to have a child, she and her husband are expecting - thanks to a gestational surrogate. Kathleen Sloan of the National Organization for Women complains that when mainstream media cover surrogacy births, "It's always from the angle of the miracle of life and not the use of some other women's eggs or the rental of another women's womb. They don't look at the health risks. They don't look at the exploitation. It's extremely one-sided and really a very classist treatment of the issue." For Surrogacy service.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/16/EDBF1OIF9J.DTL#ixzz1vDxoEJAU

Steps star Ian 'H' Watkins reveals surrogate baby miscarriage

 Ian 'H' Watkins has revealed that his surrogate baby has been miscarried.

The Steps singer said that the surrogate mother had lost the child that he and partner Craig Ryder were going to raise.

He described hearing the news as the "worst moment" of his life.

"We were thinking of names, and we even planned our first Christmas as a family. We were both ready to be dads," he told The People. For Surrogacy services

"I just feel really empty and helpless. The only person who can help me is Craig."

Watkins said that his Steps bandmates were very supportive during their recent reunion concerts, and had all visited him when they heard the news.

Read more...http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a381425/steps-star-ian-h-watkins-reveals-surrogate-baby-miscarriage.html

Elizabeth Banks has spoken out about her "battle" with infertility and the support she received.

Elizabeth Banks has spoken out about her "battle" with infertility and the support she received.
The Hunger Games star's son Felix was born via a surrogate mother last year, and she read pregnancy manual What To Expect When You're Expecting for guidance while awaiting his birth. She is now starring in the film adaptation of the book and revealed becoming a mother is the most important thing that has happened to her.
Elizabeth said: "When I was going through my battle with infertility, I got wonderful advice, which was, 'Why are you so worried about the pregnancy? Just get the baby whatever way you can get your baby.' For Surrogacy services
"Pregnant women would say, 'Yeah, pregnancy is really great and lovely, but then you go to the hospital and they give you your baby and you have to mother it.' That's the part that's important, mothering the baby, and at the end of the day, that's what this movie is about."


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/banks-my-battle-with-infertility-16159423.html#ixzz1v26gH7ua

Mother's Day gifts: Woman, surrogate both pregnant with twins

Best friends Amber Pluckebaum, left, and Misty Baker. Amber agreed to be a gestational surrogate for Misty. In a surprise, both women ended up carrying twins. (May 12, 2012)

Misty Baker is still weeks from giving birth, but this Mother's Dayis going to be one to remember. She turned to a surrogate after battling with infertility for a decade, and now Baker and her surrogate are both pregnant with twins.

In other words, Baker and her husband, Brian, both 35, are going from zero babies to four babies overnight.

The unexpected turn of events has made headlines around the globe, with many people shaking their heads and asking whether the Kirkland, Wash., couple got more than they asked for.

"When I tell people, they say, 'Are you freaked out?' They are just flabbergasted," Brian Baker said.

But the couple could not be happier.

"When it's taken you 10 years to get what you have longed for and desired for so long, it's an overwhelming feeling of thankfulness and joy," Misty said.

And they feel especially blessed to have a special friend like Amber Pluckebaum as their surrogate. Without her, Misty said, none of this would be possible.

But before we get to Amber, let's go back to the beginning. Misty and Brian met through their church in Indiana when they were still in high school and started dating their senior year. Misty met Amber during a Christian mission to Ghana. There, the two became best friends. Misty and Brian married when they were 20, and Amber would also go on to marry -- coincidentally a man named Brian. The couples envisioned a future where their children would grow up together. For Surrogacy service

That did not happen.

Read more...http://www.q13fox.com/news/la-na-nn-mothers-day-twins-20120512,0,2758228.story

Wannabe Grandparents Are Freezing Their Kids' Eggs

In the glut of books and articles about single women waiting "too long" to "settle," or the collections of stats about how adults are getting married later and later, if at all, there is that one hard-stop, that one thing that often ends up answering the awful question of how old is "too old." That is, to make babies. Women have only so much time, those biological clocks are ticking, all of that stuff you've likely heard if you're in your 20s or 30s or 40s and are still dating and figuring out what you want. It's not untrue that at some point, women will have aged past the point of having babies, or at least, having babies easily. (Yet some still do: Take New York's ASME-award winning cover and related story, which asks, "Is there anything wrong with being 53 and pregnant?"). It's a topic we'll continue to discuss as technology helps women (and men) have children later in life, and it's a subject that's sure to draw strong opinions.
Regardless of any controversy-inspiring debate or magazine covers, science hasn't stopped working on its end of things. Technologies have emerged and improved to extend the years in which women can get pregnant and have babies, via in-vitro, surrogacy, and egg-freezing, among other methods that are continuing to be worked on and perfected. While some argue that older parents deny their kids a certain something—running around, maybe? But have you seen 40something moms in Park Slope?—others disagree, and at the end of the day it doesn't seem to matter; people, especially people with money, are going to do exactly what they want to do. For Surrogacy service
And what if people's parents have money, and want them to do something? What if people's parents just really want grandchildren? According to The New York Times, the latest baby trend appears to be wannabe grandparents paying to freeze their daughters' eggs so that those daughters can, down the road, make mom and dad into grandparents. As The Times' Elissa Gootman writes:

Read more....http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/05/wannabe-grandparents-are-freezing-their-kids-eggs/52298/

International adoptions at 15-year low

The number of international adoptions has fallen to its lowest point in 15 years, a steep decline attributed largely to crackdowns against baby-selling, a sputtering world economy and efforts by countries to place more children with domestic families.
Globally, the number of orphans being adopted by foreign parents dropped from a high of 45,000 in 2004 to an estimated 25,000 last year, according to annual statistics compiled by Peter Selman, an expert on international adoptions at Britain's Newcastle University.
Some adoption advocates argue the decrease is also linked to a set of strict international guidelines known as the Hague Adoption Convention. Devised to ensure transparency and child protection following a rash of baby-selling and kidnapping scandals, critics say the guidelines have also been used by leading adopting nations, including the US, as a pretext for freezing adoptions from some countries that are out of compliance.
"It should have been a real step forward, but it's been used in a way that's made it a force for shutting down" adoptions in some countries, says Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor who promotes international adoptions. "That affects thousands of children every year."
She says places where international adoptions are stopped may ultimately see more children stuck in orphanages or on the street, where they could fall prey to sex traffickers.
US adoption officials and international agencies such as UNICEF say the Hague rules, which require countries to set up a central adoption authority and a system of checks and balances, are necessary to safeguard orphans and keep profit-driven players from corrupting a system that should be purely about helping children.
Alison Dilworth, adoptions division chief at the US Office of Children's Issues and a strong supporter of the Hague guidelines, says they shield adoptive parents from everyone's worst nightmare: "God forbid, that knock on the door ... saying your child that you have raised and loved and is fully integrated into your family was stolen from a birth parent who is desperately trying to look for them."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/13657471/international-adoptions-at-15-year-low

Couple expecting 4 children after mother, surrogate both become pregnant with twins

A Seattle couple who spent 10 years trying to conceive is now expecting four children at once, RTV6 reported.
Misty and Brian Baker had been drained financially and emotionally by in-vitro fertilization when their friends Brian and Amber Pluckebaum from Indiana stepped in to help.
Pluckebaum, who has two children of her own, agreed to be a gestational surrogate for the Bakers. Dr. William Gentry, from Indianapolis, selected the two healthiest embryos created by the Bakers to implant in Pluckebaum and implanted four lesser quality embryos in Baker.
"Why not both of you try? I mean, who knows?" Gentry told RTV6. "I think [Misty’s] thought was, 'Sure, why not? But it's not going to work with me. It never works.'"
However, both women soon learned they were pregnant with twins. Baker is carrying a boy and a girl, to be named Connor and Hope, while Pluckebaum is carrying two girls, to be named Madison and Victoria.
"There's no question that these children were loved and desired and wanted and that they have been prayed for and believed for," Baker told RTV6. "They're our little miracle babies."
The Bakers and Pluckebaums keep in contact through phone calls and Skype, according to RTV6. Early pregnancy complications prevented any travel.
Both women are due in June, but doctors expect them to deliver earlier.

http://www.weecaresurrogacy.com/

Surrogacy In India

Welcome to WeeCare Partners USA for India Surrogacy. We are an international reproduction agency located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Our mission is to provide our intended parents with a surrogacy process based on personalized service, fair rates, and a comprehensive understanding of services offered with honesty and integrity, all based on the needs of their client base.
Many families yearn to add the joy of a baby to their lives and there are thousands of young women and men who choose surrogacy as a way to make that happen. There are many reasons why parents make this choice, but what is consistent is that they want the very best for their children and have discovered that surrogacy is the best way to help their dream become a reality.
My wife and I have personally been down the same road and we understand how you feel. We also know you are likely to have had a difficult road with several past attempts at pregnancy. We understand that you have not come to such a decision easily. The emotional impact of infertility can be devastating and challenging even the best marriages or partnerships. WeeCare Partners for India Surrogacy also believes everyone has the right to experience the love of a child and the joy of becoming a parent, and does not discriminate against age, race, marital status, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. Without a doubt, though it is thrilling and ultimately fulfilling, even thinking about the process of surrogacy can be overwhelming. This is where we can help.

Dreams really can come true

WeeCare Partners USA for India Surrogacy will help you on your journey to overcome the issues that have kept you from parenthood by developing a plan and helping you find a surrogate who can bring you to the end of that long road and start you on another, more exciting one. From the very beginning, we want you to gain an understanding of our unique approach to the surrogacy process and your family.
Our Indian partners work personally with the most prominent surrogacy center and medical clinic to ensure not only the finest care for your baby, but also the most comprehensive and up-to-date guidance through the legal system. Our surrogate facilities are located in Mumbai, India at Yashoda Infertility & Healthcare services, which has served many intended parents from across India and around the world. Founded and run by Dr. Meenakshi Purinak and her team of highly trained specialists, Dr. Nandita Palshetkar and Dr. Hrishikesh Pai, the clinic has over a decade of success stories.

We're here to help

Planning a trip to India can be confusing and time consuming. Our goal is to make your transition a little easier by becoming your surrogate and travel advisors to save you the time, hassles, uncertainty, and inconvenience of going through this process alone. We are here to work for you and will do everything we can to make your journey as smooth as possible, so you can spend your energy on your new baby. We will literally go that extra mile to help you, to listen, and answer all your questions.
WeeCare Partners vision for the future is to establish a long-term relationship with our clients. In order to achieve excellence, our agency knows that the happiness and satisfaction of our clients is paramount. Being the best means we will continue to be a leader in our field and continually enhance our partnership with Yashoda Infertility & Healthcare services to help build more healthy families. Our success is built on our determination to give our clients the best service possible and to help them find the joy in their children that we've found in our son.
Thank you for getting to know us!
We wish you best of luck, God Bless!
Sincerely,

Victor Hui Wee, Owner & Founder
http://www.weecaresurrogacy.com/