BREMERTON, WA (KPTV) – The Egg Donor and Surrogacy Institute out of Beverly Hills has surrogates across the country, including in the Pacific Northwest.
Most of their clients are from other countries, especially ones where surrogacy is illegal.
But travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 has put many of these babies born in the U.S. in limbo and unable to meet their parents for months.
“I found out about surrogacy when I was in my teens, and it was always just something I wanted to do,” Jessica Burns, a surrogate, said.
Burns lives in Bremerton, Washington, and has three kids of her own. She agreed to become a surrogate for a family halfway across the world in China.
She gave birth to a healthy baby boy in early April as the pandemic was ramping up in the United States.
“They had to put a mask on you this time, Burns said. “I had to get my temperature taken. They took me through this side entrance.”
Credit: Egg Donor and Surrogacy Institute
Pre-pandemic, the family would be there for it all but due to flight restrictions, they couldn’t.
Twenty-four hours later, a nanny took the baby to Los Angeles, where the family was set to pick him up.
“We want this to be their journey, their pregnancy, their involvement in the birth of the baby, and all of those were upended by COVID,” Parham Zar Managing Director at the Egg Donor and Surrogacy Institute, said.
He says flight restrictions from China made the trek for the parents nearly impossible.
“Every time they booked a flight, it would get canceled due to COVID regulations, so they couldn’t come,” Burns said.
Since covid started in the U.S., the company has had 48 births, and dozens more are expected in the next few months.
There are still about 12 babies in limbo waiting to meet their parents for the first time.
“Can you just imagine what they’re going through? Being thousands of miles away and having to have that anxiety every night,” Zar said.
It took four and a half months for the baby boy Burns brought into this world to be united with his parents.
And even with all the bumps in the road, she said she wants to do it again.
“I felt happy because I was able to give them something like that, and not a lot of people can do that,”
“With all the good, the bad, and the ugly, at the end of the day, we’re all working together to create a miracle, but this year has just been something else,” Zar said.
He says many of their international clients are united with their babies in six to eight weeks, but as you heard, it has been much longer in some cases.
He hopes that officials can create a better policy during this pandemic so the children aren’t left in limbo for longer than they need to be.
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