Sarah Fletcher is a twenty six year old mom she is a two time surrogate. She is from Oklahoma City she has breastfed two babies these two babies and she has breast fed her own nine year old daughter.
Background history: Sarah tells us that grew up everywhere. Her dad is a power line . She traveled all over. She was born in Texas and lived in Oklahoma for a little bit, but really grew up in Orlando and then ended up back in Oklahoma so. She is the baby of six kids. She has a full blood brother and sister, two half brothers and a step sister. Her mom breastfed her 3 children. She was thirteen when her sister had her son.
First breastfeeding experience: She was definitely hard to breastfeed, but she had a support. She could get her to nurse on the left side but my right side she went The nurses In the hospital helped her. She pretty much had to hold her in a football on the first side to get her to latch for the first two weeks. The first like two weeks were just awful. But after that it was a piece of cake. She finally did eventually learn to like and enjoy and feed from the right side fairly easy. The first week and a half she did experience sore nipples.
The nurses in the hospital were awesome and definitely very willing. Once home, her support system was her mother. who was very helpful, as her sister moved back to Texas.
So what are some of the things that your mom did in the very early four to six weeks that you felt were really helpful for you with: Her just being and telling me you know it’s going to be OK. You know she’s getting enough to eat don’t stress. Letting me know all the usual and normal first time Mom worries. She was there just to support and tell me I’m going to make it through and she says she’s never seen by that you know my big worries are not really worries. She helped me make sure I would eat and had enough to drink and I had water or juice at my bedside for the middle of the night. Sarah breastfed her for 11 months and everything was fairly smooth with no problems. She weaned herself and I went straight to milk. I could only get her to drink regular milk by adding flavoring to it.
Story of becoming a surrogate: This was something that Sarah and her mom had kind of played back and forth with as perhaps this is something she might like to do. Sarah was eighteen when she got pregnant with her son and I was not in a place to take care of him. Her aunt to adopted him at birth. He is seven now. Watching the happiness this brought to my aunt and uncle and seeing their family is complete. Seeing this really touched her heart. Knowing that that was the best decision that I could have made, not only for me and my both my kids but for them too. That’s what gave me the ultimate decision. This is what I wanted to do. This was my calling. Sarah was living in Kansas at the time and her Aunt was in Virginia.
Sarah signed up with an agency in New Jersey. They check medical records and go through background to make sure that I would be a good candidate. At that point, they give my profile to intended parents. They also do a psych evalutation which you have to pass. They obviously want to make sure you’re stable. Sarah was single at the time and her daughter was six years old. I don’t think she quite understood everything but she went through my pregnancy with my son and so it’s kind of like normal for her. She knows mommy’s pregnant and then the baby goes to the other family so it’s normal for her.
The next step: After passing all of their exams, your profile is sent out. Sarah was open to who her profile was sent out to. If the intended parents are interested in you, you’ll receive their profile. If you think it’s a good match, a phone conference or a Skype is set up. It definitely needs to be mutual. If you don’t feel like that’s your match then that’s OK. You are under no pressure. They will give you another profile. You also can decide if I only wanted to carry in my state or locally then it’s very possible to do. You’re going to be obviously harder to match and you might be waiting a year or more before you’re matched.
The next thing that happens once the profiles are approved and both sides want to move forward, the paperwork is all put together. The medical exams and evaluations and everything else is done, the next thing that happens is the legal parts of the agreement. They call it “going to legal.” I will have my lawyer and they will have their lawyer and we come up with a contract. Once the contract is agreed upon and we sign it. At that point, you go forward with transfer.
