Ms Megan Schiewe:

I am a 37-year-old married mother of two and I live in a small village in Alberta, Canada. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, I gave birth to a surrogate baby for an Irish couple. I would love to tell the committee a bit more about myself and what brought me to surrogacy.

There are two events in my life that have deeply impacted my decision to become a surrogate, and both of them stem from trauma. The first event was my adoption. My adoptive mother is a cancer survivor. She had to have a complete hysterectomy and was told she would never have children. I grew up understanding how deeply infertility and loss had affected our family.

The second event happened when I was 21. I was a newly-wed and had just discovered I was pregnant with my first child. I was ecstatic. We began thinking of names and planning where the nursery would go. All of our joy turned to ashes when I suddenly began haemorrhaging. I had an ectopic pregnancy that had to be surgically removed. I lost our baby and nearly lost my own life. I lay in my hospital bed after that operation and wept so much that I had chemical burns on my face from the tears. I could not stop crying. Losing a wanted pregnancy is something I understand. Being told there is nothing that can be done to save your baby is something I understand. The guilt and shame of having to terminate a pregnancy to save your own life is something I understand.

Luckily, I was able to go on to have children. In 2016, I gave birth to our son and completed our family. I felt so blessed to have a boy and a girl. There is nothing more important to me on this earth than my children. One day I was scrolling on Facebook and I saw a post about how Canadian surrogates were needed to help others complete their families. I had never considered surrogacy before but something about that idea resonated with me.

In 2017, I felt ready to begin this adventure. I signed up with a surrogacy agency and started looking at intended parent profiles. The first profile to catch my eye was an Irish couple who had been trying for many years to have a child. The intended mother had been through multiple miscarriages and failed IVF cycles and had also suffered an ectopic pregnancy. The couple had been trying for more than ten years and did not have any children. My husband and I agreed right then and there that this was an amazing couple who had been through enough. I determined that I would do everything in my power to help them. We spoke often, video-chatted and were introduced and became very close within a short time. We discovered that we had a lot in common. They were absolutely lovely. They were very kind and funny and had a huge network of supportive family and friends. I learned many new words for things, like “nappy” instead of "diaper", and “trolley” instead of "shopping cart". I learned that "chips" are called "crisps" in Ireland, and "craic" does not necessarily refer to narcotics.

The first thing I did for our journey was medical screening. I went through this screening to make sure it was safe for me to have another pregnancy. I went through a psychological screening to ensure that I was mentally well and feeling safe and supported at home. My husband was also screened for things such as sexually transmitted infections, STIs, and spoke to a psychologist to discuss his feelings around surrogacy. After that, we went through legal contracts before we started trying to get pregnant via IVF. It took five embryo transfers and two different batches of embryos before we were successful.

On Christmas Eve in 2019, I got to tell the couple that they were going to be parents. Their joy, their happy tears and the wonderful reaction of their family and friends was so contagious and exciting. We had our first ultrasound and they missed work because they were so nervous. Each and every prenatal appointment I had, they would miss work because they feared we would have bad news or not hear a heartbeat. I constantly reassured them that I could feel their baby kicking. I knew he was alive. They never got tired of me telling them that.

When I got close to my due date, they flew to Canada and we met in person for the first time. We had been on this journey for three years at that point. My husband insisted that they needed to do Albertan things while they were waiting for me to go into labour, which included some hunting and all-terrain vehicle, ATV, riding. As I live in a small village, everyone knew who they were and could not wait to talk with the “lovely Irish couple". They were surrounded by well-wishers everywhere they went. On 4 September, when I was exactly 41 weeks pregnant, we all walked into my local hospital for a scheduled induction. The birth was uncomplicated and joyful. Being able to see their reaction, happiness and love was everything. I did it. I completed a family. I got to watch their faces when I gave birth and they met their child, which is what I had been picturing in my mind’s eye for three years. There was not a dry eye in that delivery suite as we all just basked in the glow of their happiness.

After the birth, I was followed by my doctor and our local health unit nurse. I healed quickly, and this was most likely because I was sleeping through the night. No one was crying or waking me up needing to be changed or fed. It was a very different post-partum experience than what I had been used to. I visited my intended parents every day until it was time for them to go home. In 20 days, they had all the documentation they needed to fly back to Ireland. While I never shed a single tear over my surrogate baby, I cried when they left. This couple was more than my intended parents and more than my friends. They had become my family. We still speak nearly everyday and I have been to Ireland to visit them. The pain and the sadness they lived with is gone. They are happy and whole. Surrogacy healed them in a way nothing else could.

My surrogate birth was a full-circle healing moment for me. I entered this world as an unwanted child, and I gave birth to a child that was so very wanted and loved. While my own birth represented trauma and loss, this birth represented healing and love. I have never thought of myself as his birth mother because I am not his mother. That is also a term I associate with adoption. Instead, I like to think of myself as his first extreme babysitter. It has been nearly two years since my journey ended and I have recently started out on my second surrogacy journey.

One of the purposes of my testimony today is to shed light on the question of how we can prevent the exploitation or coercion of surrogate mothers. When it is regulated and supported by a strong legal framework, altruistic surrogacy would be an excellent way to prevent the exploitation or coercion of surrogates. Surrogacy in Canada is regulated under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which is the same Act that regulates egg and sperm donation. This Act regulates surrogacy as a purely altruistic process and determines what type of expenses a surrogate may be reimbursed for.

There are several clinical requirements in Canada that could work in Ireland. Canadian surrogates need to be of legal age, have successfully given birth before, be financially stable and pass a medical and psychological screening in order to be approved. Surrogates go through medical and psychological screening to ensure that another pregnancy is safe for them and that they are mentally well. While it does not matter if a surrogate is single or with a partner, partners should also be screened by a psychologist, just like my husband was. This is done to find out if the surrogate has an appropriate support system at home and whether she is in a healthy relationship.

In Canada, it is also important for surrogates to be financially stable and not on any form of government assistance. I think that goes a long way towards preventing the exploitation of low-income women. Being a surrogate for all the right reasons is very important. I can appreciate the concern surrounding commercial surrogacy, as it may lead women in financial distress to decide to become a surrogate solely for financial gain, rather than to help build a family. That is the danger of commercialised, unregulated surrogacy.

An altruistic surrogacy model, coupled with a strong legal framework, is the best way to prevent exploitative surrogacy and coercion as there are clear guidelines in place to protect and support the women, like me, who choose to become surrogates. As a surrogate in Canada where there are such guidelines, we are empowered, not exploited. We are held to a high standard and receive a high standard of care. We are free to follow our hearts and gift our time and energy to growing and nurturing babies for the mothers and fathers who could not otherwise experience the joys of parenthood. For us, it is an experience of love, joy and completeness. We do not come to surrogacy through a position of lack, but of one of willingness to give.

That concludes my statement. I am more than happy to answer any questions members may have.