jor conflict or hostility" with the commissioning couple, and one woman reported "dissatisfaction or coldness" with the commissioning father. All the other women had no problems. During the last few months of pregnancy none of the women reported having any major conflict or hostility with the commissioning parents; 33 of them said they had a harmonious relationship with the commissioning mother and 32 said the same of their relationship with the father.

The decision about when to hand over the baby was the result of mutual agreement in 31 of the 34 cases (91%). In three cases the surrogate mother decided when to hand over the child. Ms Vasanti Jadva, the study's lead researcher from the Family and Child Psychology Research Centre at City University, said: "All of the women were happy with the decision reached about when to hand over the baby and none of the women experienced any doubts or difficulties whilst handing over the baby. One woman said that she never viewed it as handing over the child; instead she considered she was handing back the child."

After hand-over, 11 (32%) of the women experienced mild difficulties in the following weeks and one experienced moderate difficulties. The rest had no difficulties. A few months later 29 of the women were experiencing no difficulties, and after a year only two were reporting mild difficulties, with 32 reporting none.

The amount of contact between the surrogate mothers, the commissioning parents and the child following the birth varied greatly. Eleven of the women (32%) had seen both the mother and the child at least once a month, seven (21%) had not seen the commissioning mother or father at all and eight (24%) had not seen the child. The rest has seen the parents and/or the child between once a month and once in the past year. However 32 (94%) of the surrogate mothers said they were happy with the level of contact, and only two (6%) said that the level of contact was not enough.

Ms Jad
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Contact: Emma Mason
wordmason@aol.com
44-376-563090
European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology
2-Jul-2003

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