In episode seven of the second series of Our Birth Stories Podcast, we meet Hayley and hear about her experience of birthing as a surrogate. After having had positive experiences of birthing her own children including a home birth with her youngest child Hayley was happy to be able to be a surrogate for some friends of her sister. Her surrogate birth was an unplanned cesarean chosen during labour after concerns over the baby’s heart rate.

Hayley also talks briefly about her second surrogate pregnancy experiences with another set of parents. So far this has been a much more difficult journey as one pregnancy sadly ended at 20 weeks and another in an earlier miscarriage. Hayley talks about the emotions of giving the gift of parenthood in a situation where that also involves grief. 

There have been some very challenging times but the overall message and feeling in this episode is one of hope and resilience. 

Topics discussed in this episode Making the decision to become a surrogate, legalities of surrogacy arrangements, baby measuring big and navigating the offer of early induction, choosing induction at 42 weeks, full process of labour induction, concerns over baby’s heart rate at 6cm dilated, baby not descending into pelvis, in labour cesarean birth, 5kg big baby, deflexed head position, surrogate birth and baby’s parents and c-section who can be there when baby is born, postnatal experience as a surrogate, expressing milk for baby, baby loss at 20 weeks, surrogacy and baby loss, recurrent baby loss. 

For more information about surrogacy in the UK check out https://surrogacyuk.org/

Information and support when you lose a baby are available from https://www.sands.org.uk/

And https://www.tommys.org/baby-loss-support 

Want to hear more about induction of labour check out our team chat on the topic https://youtu.be/OXuZT-JWjiw

Sometimes babies get themselves into positions that make it difficult or impossible for them to get through the space available to be born vaginally. Ultimately you can’t guarantee this won’t happen and it’s one of the things you may want to talk about a plan B or C for when you’re making your birth plan. There are things you can do to give yourself the best chances of avoiding this including seeing a chiropractor during pregnancy who will help you to have the most accommodating space for your baby to turn into the best position in and checking out https://www.spinningbabies.com for info on positions you can get yourself into to which may allow your baby to change their position.