Phenomenological Experience of the Surrogate Mothers in Renting Wombs

Surrogate mother or Rent-a-womb is one of the newest fertility techniques, which is used to treat women who are unable to hold the baby in their womb. In this method, the embryo is transferred into the uterus of the surrogate mother after the sperm and the ovum are fertilized and she maintains the baby for 9 months. After birth, the baby is delivered to the real parents. In this study, the researchers seek to understand the experiences of this phenomenon, with the help of those women who have experienced being a surrogate mother. This study was done as a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach based on purposeful sampling. So, unstructured interviews were done with nine surrogate mothers who attended Isfahan infertility center, and mothers expressed their experiences in this field. The data obtained from these interviews were analyzed using 7-step colaizzi, which resulted in extracting five main themes; causes of action, surrogate mother's relationship with requesting mother, relatives, feelings of surrogate mother, and decision-making process. The results indicated that the main reason of being a surrogate mother was financial problems. However, humanitarian feelings also played a role. The relationship between Surrogate mother and the requesting mother was directed to the time of pregnancy and after delivery, most preferred a disconnection. Also, no emotional attachment between the surrogate mother and the child in her womb was seen.