More good news to report here at New Hope Fertility Center: our surrogacy chapter, New Life Surrogacy, welcomed our first baby at the beginning of September! Not to mention, the newborn is celebrated as the clinic’s first Dragon Baby since he was delivered in the Year of the Dragon — which we reported back in January as being the luckiest of the Chinese lunar years.

Our newest parents were kind enough to send us an update, and we were elated to learn that their baby boy is healthy and continues to grow strong.

Their journey began in China and they discovered our center in Macau when they had difficulty conceiving. Connecting with our expert Chinese team at New Life Surrogacy here in New York, the couple began its relationship with our surrogate in Minnesota. After standard monitoring in the US, coordinating Visas and handling all oral exchanges between the Chinese couple and their surrogate, the egg was fertilized and the rest is history — the couple became first-time parents, and in a way, New Life Surrogacy did, too.

Surrogacy is a family-building option for those who have had multiple miscarriages, have medical conditions that prevent pregnancy (ie. certain female health disorders, cancer-related infertility), have a history of complicated pregnancies, or those in a same sex relationship.

New Hope’s partnership with New Life Surrogacy, a team of physician-attorneys, began just one year ago, the latter LLP recruiting surrogates and facilitating their relationships with intended parents exclusively for New Hope Fertility Center.

Congrats again to the parents of New Life and New Hope’s first Dragon Baby — we wish you many more years of peace and prosperity!

For more information on our surrogacy program, please visit us on the web.

Giuliana Rancic and her husband, Bill, have remained in the public eye since an IVF appointment led to the discovery of a lump in Giuliana’s breast.  While her cancer diagnosis and subsequent double mastectomy put a obvious halt in their parenthood plans, the couples remains open and hopeful about the possibility of becoming parents.

In a recent interview with The Today Show, the couple alluded to the idea of trying surrogacy.  For many couples who still want to have a genetic child but cannot conceive on their own, gestational surrogacy is indeed the next best option.

Alexis Stewart was successful with our gestational carrier program, not just once, but twice!  Not to mention, Stewart was able to use her own eggs in process of having both daughter Jude and, most recently, her son, Truman.

We wish Giuliana and Bill the best as they overcome this hurdle, and can’t wait to hear what route they decide to take in their journey towards becoming parents.  Their resilience is something of which all infertile couples should take note!

Alexis Stewart, daughter of well-known television personality Martha Stewart, recently welcomed newborn son Truman into the world.

With the help of New Hope’s gestational carrier program, Stewart, who is 46, now has 2 children using her own eggs via a surrogate.  First daughter Jude just celebrated her first birthday last week.  Stewart struggled to conceive for nearly 5 years before having her first child.

For many women who have trouble conceiving, gestational carrier programs are indeed among the most practical and effective ways to achieve the dream of having a genetic child of your own.  If you’re reading this and have struggled with fertility related issues yourself, you understand the physical and emotional stress that is synonymous with infertility.  Surrogacy serves to reduce infertility-related stress by pairing you with a healthy surrogate to help you towards achieving your dream of motherhood, and since conception is attained through IVF, your child will be genetically yours through the use of your eggs and your partner (or donor) sperm.  Choosing your surrogate is always 100% your decision.

For more on our successful gestational carrier program, please visit New Hope Fertility on the web.

Congrats to Alexis on baby number two!

BioNews recently released information on an interesting surrogacy study presented at the British Fertility Society’s annual meeting concerning the mental health of children of surrogate mothers.

In the study, conducted by the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, researchers gave interviews and questionnaires to 16 children between 12 and 22 years of age to assess their personal view of having a mother who acted as a surrogate.  While the effect of these relationships has come into question in the past — many wondering if a surrogate mother’s genetic child suffers in any way due to her “job” carrying another’s child — the study revealed most of the children had healthy attitudes about their mothers being surrogates, with 10 of the 16 children stating they actually have an ongoing relationship with the surrogate child.

Indeed, the stress caused by infertility oftentimes increases when potential parents are exploring surrogacy options.  Take 30 Rock co-star Elizabeth Banks, for instance, who not so long ago revealed the stress involved in the surrogacy process in an interview with People Magazine, describing the difficult nature of handing over the control of having your child to someone else.  (Banks had a gestational surrogate, which means her embryo was implanted into another woman’s womb.)

Despite its underlying stress factors, gestational surrogacy also serves as another “fertility-saving” option for women still hoping to have a child with their own genetic material after failed IVF cycles, miscarriages, and other fertility-related issues.  And now that we know surrogacy can create families as well as lasting relationships for surrogate siblings, it is only right to promote gestational surrogacy as another healthy alternative for potential parents!

Do you know any surrogate mothers and their children?

Click here for more information on New Hope Fertility Center’s Surrogacy Program.

Last night the New York Metropolitan Embryologist Society held their first meeting of the year, hosting a talk by Reproductive Lawyer Melissa B. Brisman, Esq. of Reproductive Possibilities. Brisman spoke on Current Legal Issues with Third Party and Posthumous Reproduction and cited a variety of cases – cases that are becoming more and more common – where children are being born to parents who are no longer alive, and who, in fact, were not even alive during the time of conception. The talk was both fascinating and illuminating, and spoke to the need for more legislation regarding third party reproduction in light of the possibilities that modern technology has made attainable.

In the most simple example, having a child with a surrogate as opposed to adopting, is legally much easier. While adoption has been around for long enough for it to be highly regulated, seemingly anyone from a 90 year old single woman, to someone suffering from stage-4 cancer could, as long as they find a center willing to take their money, have a child through a surrogate without nearly the same scrutiny that they may have had to deal with going through an adoption process. Though the cases are rare, they still have sometimes resulted in children being born through surrogacy without the biological parents who wanted them.

And while technology is making it a reality for people for whom it would be improbable to have children to have their own babies, it is also making it a reality for people for whom it would have been impossible. A recent article in the Guardian, for example, talks about two Israeli parents who want to use their dead son’s sperm to have a grandchild, arguing that, even though he was not in a relationship, they know that he would have wanted a baby — so it can be seen as his last wish.

In another case from nj.com, a widow of a Newark police captain seeks pension benefits for a son conceived from sperm taken from her late husband after he had passed away. Although the child is genetically and legally the captain’s son, lawmakers are debating what benefits he is eligible for. In this case the son had been born within a year of the captain’s death, but what if it had been 20 years down the road? Where do we draw the line?

Indeed, this is a great time to be in surrogacy law since many of the current cases are going to pave the way for legislation and regulations to come.