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Feminism: chat

Jamie Chung surrogacy

27 replies

Aseagullatemybaby · 10/06/2022 14:25

apple.news/Ajj04nOgAQUu7Q8fmzR2Fxg

news.yahoo.com/jamie-chung-says-she-used-230201931.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMEKXXIEUT_U6MKVtFPl19DDY4Irdkxo_xkhkv8u1CTiYcvh28kfpRdZw5JU72wYp9563QpEmj4AkeXVp0ZlTH80b59xM8XoI_jVzn3NKohRA5qFwjys4UPjkYGw1uVHIZQB-pVmIGMRg6_8Rzjfb8XV1-bR-XpAm3-WxRjnHcC_

In all honesty I wasn’t sure who this woman was, however the story came up on my newsfeed and it made me feel sick to my stomach.

Her reasons for choosing surrogacy was because (like priyanka chopra) her career was more important to miss a moment of and “put her life on hold for 2 years and feel resentful of that”, she also said she was ‘terrified of pregnancy’ so she and her husband decided the surrogacy route.

What about the poor woman/surrogate she paid to have her baby? Why is it ok for her to miss 2 years of her life (I’m not quite sure where she got 2 years specifically from). This genuinely makes me incredibly sad, we’re in such a rich person/consumer focused world that even when we ‘don’t have time’ we can pay for a baby/life.

Does anyone else have thoughts of this?

It makes me feel so uneasy this ‘buy a baby culture’.

OP posts:
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FannyCann · 10/06/2022 16:46

So the twin boys were born in October and by December she was struggling with "postpartum depression".

She might well have been thoroughly hacked off with the demands of caring for twin baby boys but she DEFINITELY didn't have POSTPARTUM depression. Hmm

Apparently surrogate mothers have a high incidence of postpartum depression too. Which isn't surprising as they have been used as breeders and then given up their babies.

Thoroughly depressing that a class of woman is emerging who thinks another class of woman should be paid breeders so that they don't have to do the unpleasant business of birth themselves.
As well as infertile women and men who just want to buy a baby and think women should provide of course.

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PatchworkElmer · 10/06/2022 16:50

I mean, she’s talking like she’s too special and talented to go through the inconvenience of pregnancy… I’m sure the world could’ve coped without her working for this enigmatic 2 years…

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TinaYouFatLard · 10/06/2022 16:55

Despicable.

I consider all forms of surrogacy unethical, but to admit it is because you simply don’t want to inconvenience is beyond the pale.

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TinaYouFatLard · 10/06/2022 17:01

I also notice very high incidence of twins in these cases too. Like it’s not enough to subject another woman to the normal risks associated with pregnancy, but to satisfy your utter selfish wants you will ask her to endure a high risk pregnancy.

It makes me want to scream.

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Snowflakes1122 · 10/06/2022 17:02

Buying babies should be illegal. To put another woman through this is exploitation and just awful.

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Hoppinggreen · 10/06/2022 17:04

Well at least she’s honest about it and in fact by stating her reasons so openly she will perhaps make people think about rich people outsourcing childbirth and how bloody awful it is

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FiveNineFive · 10/06/2022 17:04

Apparently surrogate mothers have a high incidence of postpartum depression too. Which isn't surprising as they have been used as breeders and then given up their babies.

I mean, is it PND or is it actually grief?

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Wolfieandboy · 10/06/2022 17:05

How lucky she found a less important not so hard working woman to bear her baby for her. The entitlement is appalling.

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FannyCann · 10/06/2022 20:05

I mean, is it PND or is it actually grief?

That's a good point @FiveNineFive

Isn't it a fact that any emotional outburst from a new mother is put down to PND? My sister went to the GP with mastitis and burst into tears because as well as mastitis she had just had her dog put down. But it was definitely PND. Hmm
I think the mothers themselves aren't allowed to recognise it as grief.

As well as this woman claiming to have PND I have seen an article about a gay couple who had a surrogate born baby and one of them claimed to have PND.

We are not allowed to discuss it but the fact is that buying a baby for social reasons doesn't prepare a person for parenthood.

In fact I question whether anyone who is prepared to buy a baby is suitable to be a parent.

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FannyCann · 10/06/2022 21:29

It makes me want to scream.

Me too @TinaYouFatLard

“I was so resentful, and I had anxiety and I was angry,” Chung revealed

Whatever this is it is NOT postnatal depression. AngryAngryAngry

"While experts once thought that the changing hormones associated with pregnancy and childbirth caused postpartum depression, they now understand that multiple factors can contribute to it.
According to Dr. Jessica Vernon, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at NYU Langone Health, women who have a history of anxiety or depression are at higher risk for postpartum depression. Other risk factors include a history of infertility, multiple births, a complicated delivery and having a newborn admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Vernon told TODAY Parents.
Chung had several risk factors, including babies who were born prematurely and taken to the NICU. She’s also opened up about undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF)."

Of course if she hadn't put another woman at increased risk by commissioning twins the likelihood is the baby would not have been born early and taken to NICU. Can't see any of the other risk factors applying to a woman who hasn't been pregnant or given birth to the babies she is struggling to care for.

https://www.today.com/parents/moms/jamie-chung-postpartum-depression-using-surrogate-rcna12788

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hearmywomanlyroar · 11/06/2022 18:15

There was another thread on this that disappeared...does anyone know why? I'd been meaning to come back to read it this afternoon!

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SleepingStandingUp · 11/06/2022 18:28

Thing I don't get is, if you're too busy to have sex enough, be too pregnant to work for a short while and take a day or two out to give birth, how do you fit in hours and hours of childcare. For twins especially. I can barely remember the first few months. I remember how black things were at six weeks. I feel like I lost a year or two just trying to get enough sleep into three people and food into three people. So did they spend every spare hour of the day sat besides their incubators? Did they take mat leave the get to know their kids? Or did they bring them home and hand them over to the Nanny

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Cyw2018 · 11/06/2022 19:03

PatchworkElmer · 10/06/2022 16:50

I mean, she’s talking like she’s too special and talented to go through the inconvenience of pregnancy… I’m sure the world could’ve coped without her working for this enigmatic 2 years…

I'm sure the world could have coped without her genetic progeny, that might have been preferable, then I could just continue to ignore her work oblivious as to who she is.

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JacquelinePot · 12/06/2022 12:02

Snowflakes1122 · 10/06/2022 17:02

Buying babies should be illegal. To put another woman through this is exploitation and just awful.

This, all day long

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OhHolyJesus · 16/06/2022 13:50

Interesting to see this from the Washington Post...
"The reactions Chung anticipated aren’t unreasonable, considering surrogacy essentially offloads the discomforts and incapacities of pregnancy onto another woman. Yet there’s something galvanizing about hearing a woman bluntly rage against the limits of biology and the costs it imposes on half the population."

Whilst praising Chung's honesty there comes some mild criticism

"For people who can’t — or don’t want to — carry a pregnancy to term, using another woman’s body is the only option. If Firestone were alive today, she might acidly condemn surrogacy as an example of a “servant class” liberating a few more privileged women from “the tyranny of reproduction.”
One doesn’t have to be that unsympathetic to feel a twinge of moral unease about surrogacy. Bearing a child is distinct from other work. If a surrogate experiences complications, her health and future fertility could be diminished or even destroyed. What other job requires an employee to give a client that much control over her body?
The stakes can get even more queasy-making when it comes to surrogate bargain-hunting in countries where fees are lower than is typical in the United States. Recently, the plight of surrogates and babies endangered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where surrogacy has become a big business, revealed just how common this is."

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/jamie-chung-surrogacy-feminism/

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HermioneKipper · 17/06/2022 10:57

hearmywomanlyroar · 11/06/2022 18:15

There was another thread on this that disappeared...does anyone know why? I'd been meaning to come back to read it this afternoon!

Yep that was my thread. Apparently “not in the spirit of the site”

Right because discussing issues that affect women, mothers and babies isn’t what mumsnet is about?!

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MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 17/06/2022 11:00

Apparently surrogate mothers have a high incidence of postpartum depression too. Which isn't surprising as they have been used as breeders and then given up their babies

I bet they bloody do!

I cannot believe suragacy is legal, it's wrong in any form.

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MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 17/06/2022 11:00

HermioneKipper · 17/06/2022 10:57

Yep that was my thread. Apparently “not in the spirit of the site”

Right because discussing issues that affect women, mothers and babies isn’t what mumsnet is about?!

Ffs, I was only half way through reading that,this thread reminded me of it.

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HermioneKipper · 17/06/2022 11:01

This is honestly one of the most breathtakingly entitled things I’ve ever heard of.

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MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 17/06/2022 11:03

And she got PP depression, ,of course she did 🙄

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HermioneKipper · 17/06/2022 11:07

And yes saying she had PP depression is such an insult to the women who have experienced it.

Almost as bad as when men say they’ve had it 😡

I’ve got twins and I usually feel such solidarity with other parents of multiples. Not for her I don't.

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Fizbosshoes · 17/06/2022 11:12

I was following the other thread that disappeared without trace.

Interested that she didn't want to take time out for 2 years to get/be pregnant.....but not sure what happens after 2 years...?
I was only talking the other day while watching a nature documentary, how slow humans are to develop, walk, grow to full size and essentially become adult, compared to other mammals who are often fully grown and self sufficient in a year or 2.

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GroggyLegs · 17/06/2022 11:31

Funnily enough I was pondering surrogacy in the car yesterday - and here we have the embodiment of what celebrating 'altruistic' surrogacy results in.

Rich couples outsourcing the discomfort and dangers of pregnancy, and the non too pleasant after effects, to other women for cash.

IMO there is no acceptable surrogacy. I hate that society celebrates this.

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HermioneKipper · 17/06/2022 17:54

I agree. Surrogacy is wrong and should be illegal. It’s the buying and selling of babies, exploiting vulnerable women’s bodies to do it.

Its grotesque

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RoseGoldEagle · 30/06/2022 20:39

*For me, personally, and I will leave it at this, it’s like, I worked my ass off my entire life to get where I am,” Chung said. “I don’t want to lose opportunities. I don’t want to be resentful.”

Because other people don’t work their asses off to get where they are, of course, so she’s just SO much more deserving. Such an awful attitude. If she really felt that about her career, she should have remained child free, a perfectly valid choice. Ugh.

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