The Mom of 3 Who Has Been a Surrogate 4 Times

When Molly took a job at the front desk of a fertility clinic in Connecticut, she didn’t know much about assisted reproductive technology. Her own children were 2, 6, and 15, and she had gotten pregnant with all of them easily. (She became a mother when she was 18 — a senior in high school.) But Molly soon discovered that she found the job supremely gratifying, especially when it came to talking with patients. In her first year of work, she got to know scores of would-be parents, many with heartbreaking stories of multiple pregnancy losses and failed IVF cycles and embryo transfers. She also became well acquainted with the specific, careful steps patients had to follow ahead of an IVF cycle or embryo transfer. Some of the patients she worked with were surrogates, and it was Molly’s job to answer their basic questions about the medications they needed to take to prepare the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) for an embryo transfer.

The more Molly learned about surrogacy, the more interested she became in trying it herself. She and her husband didn’t want more children of their own, but Molly didn’t mind being pregnant and wasn’t intimidated by the idea of carrying a child for someone else. Molly, now 41, shares how she made the leap from learning about surrogacy to becoming a surrogate carrier four times over.

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