Surrogate motherhood 'frowned upon'

     Now the article below is talking about the UK which appears vastly different from my experience about surrogate motherhood...I believe, now correct me if I'm wrong, that egg donation in the states is the more the "secret" of conception then surrogacy. It's hard to hide that you are not pregnant one day and come home with a new born the next.  Needless to say I have had the conversation with an Intended Mother from out of the country of how she planned to fake a pregnancy just to avoid the questions from family and friends and to bypass the uncomfortable questions regarding her personal reasons of needing a surrogate.

I would love to hear your remarks!

Sharon

www.InfertilityAnswers.net

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Surrogate motherhood 'frowned upon'

The Press Association

Surrogate motherhood is still frowned upon by many members of the population, researchers have found.

A survey conducted among 187 women drawn from the general UK population found that only 17 were willing to become surrogate mothers.

Eight said they could imagine being genetic surrogates, which would entail having their own eggs fertilised by the intended father's sperm. Nine accepted the idea of gestational surrogacy, and incubating an embryo conceived by another couple.

Women who were unsure about surrogate motherhood were less likely to have had children, according to the research. Both those with positive and negative attitudes to surrogacy were more likely to have had them.

Women who thought parenthood was very important were more likely to consider helping others to become parents, the survey showed.

Professor van den Akker, from Middlesex University in Hendon, who led the research, said: "We need to do further research with larger numbers, to enable us to see whether the attitudes we found translate into actual behaviour.

"Interestingly, we found that the group who was definitely not interested in becoming a surrogate mother also scored significantly more negatively on advertising, inducements, and the consequences of surrogacy.

"They also rated reasons for not wishing to have a child such as 'parenthood restricts careers', and 'parenthood is not the most important goal in life', higher than potential surrogates."

Prof van den Akker presented the findings at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (Eshre) in Barcelona, Spain.

He added: "We.. believe that, as surrogacy becomes less stigmatised, families who have children born in this way will be more likely to disclose the means of conception, not just to their children, but also to their family and friends, leaving them in better psychological health."