Article by Lezly Herbert
July 2016
- http://www.outinperth.com/interesting-read-labour-love/
Labour of Love
by Shannon Garner
Simon & Schuster Australia
At the age of 33, Shannon Garner was
happily married and living on the north coast of New South Wales, 6 hours from
Sydney. She had natural water births for her two children – Jaxon (4) and Kiera
(2) and she decided to become a gestational surrogate to “help someone else
realise a dream they might not otherwise have the chance to fulfil.”
Sydney couple Jon and Justin had been
together for 8 years they had a friend who heard of Shannon’s desire to be a
surrogate. They also had a friend who was willing to donate her eggs and the
four of them embarked on a year that would change their lives and the lives of
everyone they cared for forever.
Shannon writes an extremely detailed
account of the journey of that year, from the initial discussions to a happy
reunion 7 weeks after baby Elsie is born.
She obviously has a strong spiritual
connection and utilised acupuncture to help with the success of the IVF and
yoga during her pregnancy. She also communicated to “her passenger” all the
time and encouraged her to do the right thing so she could have a natural
birth.
Her incredibly positive outlook didn’t
prevent difficulties from occurring along the way and she shares her doubts and
insecurities with great honesty.
It was a time when Thailand’s Baby Gammy
was all over the media and there were considerable discussions about the ethics
and difficulties of surrogacy. Under Australian law, a surrogate mother
cannot accept payment but they can change their mind and keep the baby, even if
it comes from a donor egg. Current laws vary from state to state and record
numbers of childless Australian couples currently go overseas to pay a
surrogate.
Calling her experience a “collective love”,
Shannon had the support of a whole network of people and she has several
friends who are pregnant at the same time, including some who are also
surrogate mothers.
Shannon considers that she is just an
ordinary person who undertook and extraordinary journey. Shannon had the
absolute support of her family and they need to be admired for their altruistic
belief that along with Shannon, they were “compensated by love and the
knowledge that they’ve changed a couple’s lives for the better.”
