So is this a bold and exciting new world in which women are taking control of their financial situations?
Or are their economic circumstances taking control of them?
Even some of the women involved aren’t quite sure of the answer.
Amy needs the money.
“Every time we were about to get caught up, there was another setback,” she says.
At least one Los Angeles staffing agency openly matches new moms with wet nurses.
“We explain that it’s a volunteer process.”
For an extra $12, she will line the package with dry ice.
But as it turns out, “only two customers actually have a baby,” she says.
Some guys spend their money on beer; these guys spend it on milk.
I would feel bad charging [the widower].
But I don’t mind getting money from the weirdos."
Banks typically screen donors using an eight-page medical questionnaire and a blood test for HIV and hepatitis.
“A healthy child might be able to handle bad bacteria, but not one who is immuno-compromised.”
That means Amy and her New York clients are breaking the law.
“There is potential for fraud when you pay someone directly,” she adds.
“Her milk could be mixed with a neighbor’s milk, cow’s milk or water.
It could be old or not stored properly.
Any of these scenarios could compromise a baby’s health.”
She alerts customers when she is sick so they can opt out.)
“I want to do that for my kids,” she says.
“I don’t want them to be in the same situation my husband and I are in.”
Hopeful parents once had to wait at least six months to find a woman willing to be their surrogate.
Today, for the first time since the practice began three decades ago, there’s no line.
And when a family member ran into hard times during the real estate crash, Cook helped out.
Still, she insists her initial motivation wasn’t money.
It didn’t, but the idea stuck in Cook’s mind.
“I can’t imagine not being able to have kids.
Surrogacy is a kind of calling for me.
I’m doing this to change someone’s life.”
Depression is common; one in eight pregnant women and new moms suffers from it.
And childbirth is fatal for about one in 10,000.
Still, Cook says, “I’m not worried.
I have the gift of carrying a child very easily.”
But she knew she had already donated more times than doctors recommend.
“In my mind, I was done,” she says.
The cratered economy changed that calculation.
“I started getting scared.”
“I was desperate,” she says.
“How long would it take me to make $10,000 at a part-time job?”
“I’m not attached to my genetics, I guess,” she says.
“I don’t know the man [involved].
I don’t love that man.
Now that I’ve met some of the recipients, I understand how difficult their journey was.
Still, “six times is enough,” Dr. Schattman says.
Lyne Macklin-Fife, program administrator at Egg Donation, agreesin theory.
“So many cycles should shut the door on [Bloedorn],” she says.
“But she’s in dire need.
The money is too good for hernotto do it.”
Bloedorn remains ambivalent about her decision to advertise her eggs.
I’ve been lucky.
Then again, what’s one more?”
On the surface, literally, Jessica Cole has it all.
A perfect size 6 body.
“The friend who forwarded me the ad said he wished he could do it,” Cole says.
“But they wanted only women.”
“The participants…are less real-life, modern-day Sleeping Beauties than islands of enviable calm…. “Over-the-counter drugs aren’t necessarily safer,” she says.
In her rare moments of wakefulness, Cole enjoyed measuring her audience’s response.
Later, a man lifted the pillow Cole had put over her eyes to block out light.
“I screamed at him, ‘it’s possible for you to’t touch art!'”
“The service I provided with my body in that bed did not involve touching.
Then it becomes prostitution.”
Photo Credit: Jamie Chung
