My Mother’s Surrogacy

The My Mother’s Surrogacy project is a Canadian study that looks at the subjective experiences of the children of surrogate mothers with regard to their mother’s surrogacy process. While over the last few decades, several studies have documented the experiences of women who agree to carry a child for another person, as well as those of people who become parents thanks to such surrogates, very few studies have examined the ways that children understand their mothers’ surrogacy and the act of giving the newborn to the parents. More specifically, this study aims to document the representations that surrogates’ children put forward of the various people involved in the surrogacy project, discern how they explain their mothers’ surrogacy, and, lastly, explore the emotions they feel in relation to the surrogacy process. More than sixty children, teens and young adults were interviewed for this project. The project’s results will equip surrogates to better support their own children when they are carrying a baby for someone else, as well as helping agency workers who work with surrogates.

This project is coordinated by Flavy Barrette (UQO) and co-directed by Isabel Côté (UQO) and Kévin Lavoie (U Laval).

This project was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Canada Research Chair in Third-Party Reproduction and Family Ties.