Episode Details

Surrogacy in Australia: What Happens When Key Relationships Break Down? 

When Hayley agreed to become a surrogate for people she knew and trusted, she imagined she wasn’t simply helping create a family. She imagined becoming part of an extended one.

But her surrogacy journey became far more complicated than she expected.

In this episode of The C-Word with Catharine Redden, Hayley talks candidly about becoming a surrogate in Australia, a difficult pregnancy involving hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), birth trauma, postpartum recovery, ongoing health complications, and the eventual breakdown of her relationship with the intended parents.

After the parentage order was made, contact ceased.

Hayley talks about the particular grief of recovering from pregnancy and birth without the baby she carried, while also losing the relationship she had expected would continue throughout the child’s life.

We also discuss Australia’s altruistic surrogacy system, the expenses and medical consequences a surrogate can face, bodily autonomy, proposed changes around surrogate compensation, and what Hayley believes needs to change to better support surrogates after birth.

This is not an argument for or against surrogacy.

It is one woman’s account of her own experience, and an exploration of something rarely discussed: what happens to the surrogate after everyone else goes home with the baby?

Hayley also talks about finding something joyful to build from an extraordinarily difficult period of her life through her new dessert business, Petal & Crumb. (Find out more about Petal & Crumb here: https://www.instagram.com/petal.and.crumbs) 

Please note: This episode reflects Hayley’s personal experience and perspective. The intended parents are not identified or represented in the episode, and identifying details have been withheld to protect the child and other connected parties.

Further information & resources

For further information about surrogacy law and surrogacy in Australia, visit Sarah Jefford OAM, family creation lawyer specialising in surrogacy and donor conception:

Sarah Jefford: sarahjefford.com
Instagram: @sarahjefford
The Australian Surrogacy Podcast

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This podcast gets into bodies, panic attacks, trauma, sexism, mental health, and the occasional emotional sinkhole. Please look after yourself only listen when you feel safe to engage with potentially triggering material. 
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Recorded on the lands of the Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri peoples.
Sovereignty never ceded.

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