You know multiple births do happen with a certain amount of specificity in the surrogacy world. What if it happened to you?
I was advised that if I really wanted a baby, I should likely transfer two or three embryos into the womb of my surrogate. Apparently, the shear presence of the first embryo helps the second to implant.
In my case, I elected to have two embryos transferred. I was anticipating one, but prepared to handle twins. Conversely, I felt completely overwhelmed by the chance of having triplets.
As I have mentioned somewhere else, I had the opportunity to meet a Dad, who had one child and wanted a second. He and his wife struggled with conception and opted for IVF. They put two embryos in and one split yielding a set of identical twins and a third baby, meaning triplets, in addition to the child they already had. Their reality became four children, not the two they were hoping for.
How would you feel if you ended up with twins, or triplets, or even quadrulets? How would you manage? Who would help you? How would you cope financially? Would you have to move?
There is a family locally that I know of who had one child, a set of quads and then another child. I remember the first time I encountered them. They were shopping at Heinens. Mom was there with a double stroller, pushing the kids, with a babysitter, behind her, pushing yet another double stroller. I thought heck who has space for the groceries, when there are so many children to manage. All I could imagine is that they must shop every day!
This family belongs to the JCC were my boys attended pre-K for three years so we saw this family on a number of occasions and I must say I always shook in my boots, thinking, “What if …”
In any event, it is now time that you consider how many embryos you want to transfer and what the consequences might be.
Please write a comment about what provisions you would put in place in case you had triplets or quadruplets or even more children from one pregnancy.
Don’t get too worried, the incidence of identical quadruplets is 64 million!
Lisa J Lafave, PhD, MBA, ACC
The Surrogacy Coach from Surrogacy Rocks
CEO & Founder of Coaching Rocks, LLC
A Single Mom By Choice Raising Surrogacy Twin Boys
Written in My Little Brick in University Heights, Ohio