These Stunning Birth Photos Capture the Beauty of Surrogacy
When Kim Overton learned that she had uterine fibroids she was a single 34-year-old personal trainer who had just launched a fitness video. At that point, having children wasn't exactly on her mind. "But, when you hear the word "tumor" and "uterus" in the same sentence, you can't help but worry. Was I going to be okay? And what about having kids?" she wondered.
Her doctor assured her that removing her fibroids would have no impact on her fertility, but warned that if she did want to have kids biologically, she'd need to do so within five years.
At 39, Kim gave birth to her first son. She was a "solo starter," or, as she explains, someone who decides to start a family without a partner.
The next year, Kim decided that no matter the complications, she was ready to give her love to another baby. "Although the fibroids and being in my 40s didn't make things easy, I was fiercely determined to have a second child one way or another," she wrote on her blog.
Despite many false alarms and disappointments, she wasn't ready to give up trying, until her doctors hit her with some real talk. "They told me that the fibroids within my uterus walls could very well be the reason why a pregnancy wasn't sticking."
It was then that the idea of surrogacy occurred to her. She was fully capable of being mom, but she "simply needed a new uterus," she joked.
Her cousin's 26-year-old daughter, Cydnee, answered her prayers. But after almost two years of trying, neither of Kim's embryo transfers were successful.
"I nearly gave up. The emotional toll was becoming too much to bear," she explains of learning Cydnee was pregnant and then just one week later, finding out there was a complication.
With the support of her husband, who she met after she started the surrogacy process, they made one more attempt. And last July, Cydnee became pregnant again.
When Kim's little boy, Oliver, was ready to come into the world a few weeks ago, Austin,Texas-based birth photographer Leilani Rogers, was there to capture every emotional moment.
"Surrogacy can be just as special and beautiful as a natural pregnancy and birth, and without it, our son Oliver would not be here today," Kim says.
"The child may not be in your tummy, but you get to spend nine months preparing for his/her arrival, and you will be the child's parent all the same."
[H/T Solo Starting]
