‘How did I feel giving the baby away? I never thought of it like that’: inside a weekend retreat for surrogate mothers

They don’t do it for money, and pregnancy takes a toll. So why do women lend their wombs to carry a baby for strangers they’ve met online?Get our weekend culture and lifestyle emailAs I walk out of Hobart airport’s small arrivals hall, I immediately spot the person I’m looking for. My contact, Mollie D’Arcy, is standing at the exit, heavily pregnant. Her baby bump isn’t the only giveaway – she’s holding up a laminated sign in hot pink writing, sticky taped to a retractable light sabre toy. It reads, “Surrogates on Tour.”It’s mid-September 2024 and D’Arcy is this year’s Surrogacy Sisterhood Retreat organiser and captain. Since its inception in 2018, it’s the first time this event, a roving annual weekend away for surrogates past and present, has made it to Tasmania. Continue reading...

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