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Surrogacy: 鈥業t鈥檚 the most incredible gift you can ever receive鈥�

Surrogacy brings joy to many, but it's a journey requiring careful planning.

Christmas this year will be extra special for Laura Boyd as she’ll be celebrating the arrival of her longed-for baby daughter. But Laura will not give birth herself; instead a family member will deliver the baby and transfer her care her over to Laura and her husband.

鈥楳y daughter will be born by a surrogate鈥�

Laura Boyd reveals how a family member stepped forward to help her become a mum.

Ten years ago Laura was diagnosed with leukaemia and her condition means that she cannot safely carry a baby herself.

Speaking on Mornings with Kaye Adams Laura described discovering this news as "devastating". But as all hope of having her own child seemed to evaporate, a family member stepped forward and offered to act as a surrogate.

Laura explained, “She was adamant, [she said] ‘I can do this for you, I’ve had my family; I want to give this to you’”.

Through IVF, Laura and her husband are the biological parents of their little girl and, given their surrogate is someone they know well, they don’t foresee any problems when the she finally makes her long awaited appearance in December.

But while surrogacy is becoming more common it demands careful consideration.

Family solicitor Alasdair Docwra joined Laura and Kaye and explained that a great deal of thought must go into the surrogacy process from the very start.

“We encourage the parents and the surrogate mother to enter into a written agreement," he said. "It isn’t enforceable … but if you have an agreement between the surrogate and the intending parents you have to think about all sorts of different things that might happen.”

“They have to think about the vital points: about the transfer of the child at birth and exactly how that’s going to happen. They have to think about really difficult problems that might crop up, and there are decisions about what should happen if a life threatening condition arises for the child or for the surrogate mother."

For Laura, these decisions have been made and now all she has to do is wait patiently for the arrival of her daughter.

“It’s the most incredible gift ever,” she said.

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