Parents back out on surrogate mother pregnant with their twins
“She said that her husband is bipolar, which was news to me. I was speechless. She told me that the babies would go to social services after the birth and that they were my problem now.”
Susan Ring from Salt Lake City in Utah had successfully given birth to a couple’s child as a surrogate mother. At first she thought everything had gone all right, but she soon grew uneasy.
“There was just something that wasn't right, and I couldn't put my finger on it," Susan told lifestyle magazine PEOPLE of her experience shortly after giving birth.
The couple didn’t seem too excited, but when they got in touch with her to be their surrogate once again, Susan agreed—this despite her gut saying she shouldn’t.
They went ahead with the decision.
A few months later though a routine ultra sound, she found out that she was carrying triplets. The couple wasn’t at all happy with the news.
“It went to hell,” Susan recalled.
The couple asked her to reduce to twins. Reluctantly, she agreed; if she did not, she would have been sued for breach of contract.
Four months into her healthy pregnancy, the could seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. They weren’t returning Susan’s calls and they were nowhere to be found.
It was only when the agency stepped in did Susan find out that the couple had gone bankrupt, was divorcing, and didn’t want the twins.
It had been a tough time for Susan, who, on top of her pregnancy, was a single mother running a daycare: first there was the horror of the reduction, and then suddenly she was left with the twins.
With a month left of her pregnancy, Susan pulled up in the couple’s condo and walked up the front door. She knocked, but there was no answer.
Susan called the mother and said that she will make a scene if they didn’t come out and talk to her.
The mother emerged from her house and broke a startling news.
“She said that her husband is bipolar, which was news to me. I was speechless," Susan said. "She told me that the babies would go to social services after the birth and that they were my problem now."
Social services arrived for the twins shortly after she gave birth, and that’s when the gravity of the situation hit her.
Susan filed a lawsuit for breach of contract, against her attorney’s advice. The truant couple was quick to get in touch, saying they would let go of their parental rights if she promised to drop the suit.
She agreed, and the care of the twins was left to her for three months.
“In my head, I knew they were never mine,” she said. “I was only thinking about finding them a loving family—a mother and father who wanted to have them. I knew there was no way I could have taken them, but I was torn.”
She did find an amazing home for the twins, who are now 14 years olds who still keep in touch with her.
“Our relationship is great,” she said. “I always tell them, if they ever need me, I'm here for them. I just knew that two healthy, beautiful babies were not going to go to social services. I couldn't let it happen."
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