Después de todo, su historia es digna de contemplar. una narrativa que brillaría y trascendería los límites y los píxeles de una imagen. Sería un regalo de Amy e iría a Hilde y Christian. Las palabras no pueden expresar lo que hacen estas imágenes.
Toda su vida, Hilde Kristine (31) había soñado con ser madre, así que cuando recibió la noticia de que tenía ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ y nunca podría tener hijos propios, su mundo se derrumbó. Ocho años más tarde, sin embargo, se convirtió en madre de una hermosa niña con la ayuda de una madre sustituta en Canadá.
In 2008, Hilde Kristine received the news everyone feared: She had a rare form of ᴄᴇʀᴠɪᴄᴀʟ ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ and had to be treated with ʀᴀᴅɪᴀᴛɪᴏɴ and ᴄʜᴇᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀᴀᴘʏ. That means she would never be able to have children of her own. “The whole world collapsed. It was actually harder than being told I had ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ. Having children and starting a family has always been very important to me. I am a person who has always dreamed of becoming a mother,” she says.
She says that it was an extremely tough message to receive as a 22-year-old student with a boyfriend and future plans. “Life was completely turned upside down within a few minutes at the doctor’s. I am very happy that I had Christian, who is now my husband, with me. We went through this together.”
Hilde was treated at Haukeland and Radiumhospitalet, and became ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ-free the same year, after a tough round of ᴄᴀɴᴄᴇʀ ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛᴍᴇɴᴛ. After finishing ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛᴍᴇɴᴛ, Hilde and Christian began to think about what possibilities they had for having children. She describes the years after the illness as a continuous process of finding a way to become parents. They thought about adopting, but gave up because of the long and unpredictable waiting time. “Surrogacy was not the first thing we thought of, which I think is due to the fact that we knew very little about it,” she says.
Surrogacy is not permitted in Norway, but it is not illegal to have a child with the help of a surrogate abroad. Hilde got to know someone who later became a good friend through the Gynecological Association, who herself had become a mother of twins in Canada. “She gave us a lot of information about the surrogacy process. We also got a more nuanced picture of what surrogacy can actually be.”
In Canada, only what is called “altruistic surrogacy” is legal, which means that those who are surrogates do not get paid to act as surrogate mothers. It must be done voluntarily. You only cover the surrogate’s expenses related to pregnancy and birth.
In January 2015, the process started and it happened about six months later. “It was a fantastic day. You don’t know how long you have to wait to be chosen. It was unreal that someone on the other side of the globe would help us with such a big thing as having children. It is an absolutely wonderful thing to do for others.”
They had contact with their future surrogate mother, Amy, via email and Skype to get to know each other better before they agreed that this was right for all parties. Surrogacy today mainly takes place when a ꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟɪᴢᴇᴅ ᴇɢɢ (ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏ) is inserted into the surrogate’s ᴜᴛᴇʀᴜs in a clinic. For Hilde and Christian, ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏs were created using egg donation, and Amy eventually became pregnant with their child. A small miracle was on its way! In week 20, they went to Canada and had an ᴜʟᴛʀᴀsᴏᴜɴᴅ where they found out that there was a little girl growing in Amy’s stomach. Four weeks before the due date, they went back again to attend the birth.
El 29 de junio de 2016 nació la pequeña Julie, diez días antes de su fecha prevista. Hilde y Christian pudieron estar presentes durante el parto, y Hilde tomó a Julie directamente en sus brazos. Fue una experiencia abrumadora y emotiva. “Estamos eternamente agradecidos de que Amy nos haya ayudado a convertirnos en una familia de tres”.
Muchas personas se preguntan cómo una mujer puede estar embarazada durante nueve meses y luego dar a luz al niño. Amy tiene una respuesta clara para eso. “Este nunca fue mi hijo. No lo voy a dejar, lo voy a devolver”, dijo Amy, madre sustituta.
Dos meses después del nacimiento de Julie, y después de muchos momentos agradables con Amy y su familia, estaban listos para llevarse a su hija a Noruega. “Desde que regresamos a Noruega, hemos tenido contacto regular con Amy y esperamos que dure mucho tiempo”.
