The Conversation

A surrogate mother and a mother who used a surrogate - Kim Chakanetsa explores the ethics and emotions of carrying a child for someone else, with two women from the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Krystal Wallace is from Texas and already had two children of her own when she saw a TV programme about surrogacy and thought it could be for her. After a rocky start, she has now been a gestational surrogate for three different childless couples. She hates the term 'womb for rent', preferring to call it 'extreme babysitting'. Krystal says seeing the parents' faces when they meet their child is the most amazing feeling for her, and she doesn't feel any sense of loss when they take the baby home. Jeanne Kapongo is from DRC and now lives in South Africa. She and her husband dreamed of having a big family but it took them ten years to fall pregnant with their first child. She says that she would not have felt complete without a second child, but after four more miscarriages they decided to opt for surrogacy. Jeanne says she was lucky to find a surrogate mother she connected with straight away, although it was a nerve-wracking process, as in South Africa the surrogate has the right to terminate the pregnancy for any reason. Image: (L) Krystal Wallace and (R) Jeanne Kapongo Credit: Krystal Wallace and Marie Claire