Social support systems available to surrogacy commissioning mothers; challenge facing infertility centers

One of the factors affecting maternal role is access to supportive resources. In addition to the challenges of motherhood surrogacy commissioning mothers for the first time, are faced with a unique situation. But so far no study to examine the experiences of these women and how to access support resources. In order to identify these resources is essential for planning based on client needs and optimal use of these resources that reduce stress and hardship of the transition to motherhood. This study has examined surrogacy commissioning mothers ' perceptions of their support systems in the process of becoming a mother. This study has been done with qualitative approach from August 2010 to Jun 2012. The method of data collection was unstructured interview and sampling was purposeful. Generally 32 interviews were done with 15 commissioning mothers with gestational surrogacy and 5 infertility center's personnel. Environment of research was Royan Research Center in Tehran and other governmental or nongovernmental infertility centers, hospitals and clinics that have done surrogacy in Iran. Data analysis has been done by use of conventional content analysis method. During the process of content analysis, two themes was revealed that indicate the nature and dimension of commissioning mothers perception about their support resources in the process of becoming a mother. These themes was including: 1. Having the support containe of two main categories “Benefit from the support of a trusted” and “support of i nfertility centers in facilitation of motherhood process” and 2. Non- effective support containe of three main categories: “Inadequacy of organizational services”, “Lack of adequate support from husband, family and friends” and “Not percepted support”. Each one has a more sub- sub-sub- classes. Concusion: Findings show that despite the limited resources available to support of mothers in the family and community, mothers ignore them consciously and they looking for someone who are reliable and trustworthy to help them. Awareness of mothers needs can help to managers, planners and officials, especially in infertility centers in future planning.