Ever since 34-year-old woman, Grace Edema parted ways with her husband, she has been battling a great challenge in fending for the two children she had for her estranged husband.
Grace said she was a salary earner and was making people’s hair but the money she realised in the businesses was not enough to take care of herself and her two children.
She explained how she got introduced to the surrogacy business, saying she accepted the offer after meeting the requirements because “I am tired of suffering.”
At a time the economy of Nigeria is severely challenged, some citizens have been striving hard to beat the hardship.
Grace recalled how her transportation fare to work in a month was almost the same amount she was earning as salary, hence her decision to quit the job.
She said poverty forced her into carrying pregnancies for fellow women.
According to her, after she was delivered of her second child, her husband abandoned her and it has been difficult for her to fend for herself and her two children. Hence, she became a surrogate mother in order to keep body and soul together and meet other extended family needs.
Grace was one of the surrogate mothers who revealed the intrigues in the so-called business of surrogacy during their separate interviews recently.
They said aside from being a means of putting food on their table, surrogacy also avails them the opportunity of solving couples’ childbearing challenges not minding the painful experience.
It is the joy of most women, especially the married ones to have their own babies after the wedding ceremony. However, in some cases, some couples battle childbearing delay and other fertility challenges. Some even don’t want to go through the rigour of pregnancy, preferring other women to carry their pregnancies and give birth to their children for them. Others who may not want to adopt children are embracing surrogacy.
Checks by The Point revealed that some surrogacy agencies recruit women who are interested in becoming surrogate mothers and after meeting the criteria set by intending parents such as height, weight, complexion, beauty and so on, the egg of the intending parents are inserted into the surrogate mothers following series of medical tests.
It was gathered that intending parents or individual women who seek the services of surrogate mothers pay the latter huge amounts of money for carrying their pregnancies and giving birth to their children for them.
“I must confess that this surrogacy thing is not easy. The insertion process is very painful. But, I am tired of suffering and I can’t watch my mother and siblings go hungry, that is why I decided to be a surrogate mother,” Grace said.
She explained further how hardship made her realise the economic potentials in assisting her fellow women carry pregnancies and give birth to their children.
“God gave me children but I can’t even feed them well not to talk of raising them properly. This is why I decided to undertake surrogacy because aside from the money I get there, it is an opportunity for me to put smiles on the faces of those seeking to have children of their own,” she explained.
Another surrogate mother, simply identified as Ramota, said it was the need to cater for the needs of her mother, siblings and child that provoked her interest in the endeavour.
According to her, her father gave birth to 24 children but the man did not take care of them. She revealed that it was the various mothers of her siblings that took the responsibilities for their upkeep.
“I am determined to end the kind of poverty that my mother is facing. So, when the surrogacy business came, I had to grab it,” Ramota stated.
For Grace, only her elder sister and mother know she is into surrogate business.
“I have to make mine a secret because many of my friends won’t believe I can become a surrogate mother. Their thinking is that one becomes pregnant and sells babies to interested women. But, my mother and my immediate elder sister know I am a surrogate mother.
“I am pleased with the job and I am better off than when I was a salary earner, making hair for people and doing house maids. I never made the gains I am making now as a surrogate mother in my previous works,” the mother of two added.
Also, Ramota believed that being a surrogate mother is better than going into crime or prostitution.
The founder of a surrogate agency, Meet Surrogate Mothers, Olaronke Thaddeus, said they keep surrogate mothers in their care for weeks so that they would not have sexual intercourse with any man that may impregnate them and discard the egg planted into them.
She said it was during the period that surrogate mothers get sensitised and also sign necessary papers to formalise the deal.
According to her, the process, including the tests to be carried out on the intended surrogate mother, is tedious while the In vitro fertilisation, popularly known as IVF, is “very painful.”
