BBC4 Surrogacy programme

[nancydrew]

Did anyone watch this? I cried while watching but felt conflicted. Predominantly felt it was rather exploitative though. But the owner/doctor of the clinic was also encouraging of self reliance and not allowing husbands to exploit the surrogates.

I saw a little of it, not enough to get a proper sense of the surrogacy operation, but I found it heartbreaking to see the women having to give up the babies they'd carried. And that woman who was carrying a baby for a Japanese couple and had a c-section, and the baby was taken straight from her belly out of the building to wait until the Japanese parents arrived in the country. I have say that the impersonal way that baby was handled and bundled into clothes made me well up...

It was very hard to watch, very emotional but I could see why they do it - it helps the surrogates, one bought her own house, another sent her children to English speaking school. The woman who ran the clinic was quite inspirational. She believed she was doing a good thing and she helped the surrogates a lot teaching them to be independent and giving them skills so they can earn money.

But, they are selling babies.

The couples who bought the babies all burst in to tears, you could feel the emotion as they come to the end of a very traumatic, emotional journey. My feelings after watching it was the positives outweigh the negatives. Very good film.

I found this sad and quite shocking. I know the surrogate women's lives improved materially, but how sad it was when they gave up the babies, and how tellingly at least one of them referred to the child as "my son".

I was shocked by the programme. I can understand why the Indian mothers do it - an 'easy' why to get good money. I felt like they were prisoners, as they seemed to spend all their time in the dormitories.

What channel was this on? I missed it and can't find it on iplayer! Thanks

It says in the title, duh!!

It's on the iplayer

It's very interesting. I don't know how I feel tbh. They are doing all kinds of fertility treatments there.