New support service makes it easier for LGBTI people to create a family

New support service makes it easier for LGBTI people to create a family
Image: Dwayne & Shane with Amelia, Tamara and baby Zara. Image: supplied.

The recent launch of Surrogacy Australia’s Support Service, designed to make it easier for Australians to form ‘surrogacy teams’ and be supported on these complex journeys, will encourage more of the LGBTI community to embrace parenthood.

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Gay men make up over half of Australians needing egg donors and surrogates, and in the last three years, significantly more have been creating families via domestic surrogacy.

But they have done so without much more than determination and their own support networks. Brisbane couple Dwayne and Shane are one of these.

Just ordinary blokes looking to create a family, they were luckier than most. They had been together a decade before they started talking kids.

Never daring to hope too hard, they nonetheless posted on a surrogacy forum announcing their search.

Their post caught the eye of Amelia, an experienced young surrogate, looking for another couple to carry for.

Within a short time they had agreed to work together, forming Team Tango (surrogacy being a marathon rather a sprint, it needs a team approach).

Their journey had its tough points – with Amelia in Sydney, there were many times they wanted to help but distance made it impossible.

Support, flexibility, and patience are keywords in surrogacy and luckily these guys had all three qualities in spades.

Amelia was over 40 weeks pregnant by the time she went into labour and it was no easy process.

But over the next 36 hours Dwayne and Shane were by Amelia’s side as they battled with inflexible hospital authorities.

Their daughter Zara was finally born on 25th August. It’s a moment the boys will never forget.

Surrogacy journeys have many actors – egg donor, surrogate, surrogate’s partner, intended couple, lawyers, doctors, counsellors – and in Team Tango’s case also their birth doula Tamara.

This summer, non-profit educator Families Through Surrogacy returns to Australia’s main capital cities with its popular seminar series covering egg donation and surrogacy options for those requiring help creating family.

Across Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Auckland, Team Tango and ten other gay dads will share their journeys to parenthood.

Learn about egg donation and domestic and overseas surrogacy from these guys and hear from experts, Australian surrogates, and egg donors.

The Sydney seminar will run early on Fair Day, Sunday 17 February, to cater to the many LGBTI folk coming into Sydney for the weekend.

For more information visit: www.familiesthrusurrogacy.com/aust-nz-surrogacy-egg-donor-seminars-feb-2019

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