“We are both nearly in tears.”
A transgender couple shared the heartache of not being able to meet their newborn daughter because they weren’t her “legal parents.”
The current UK law states that the surrogate is the child’s legal mother unless they sign a parental order. This transfers the rights to the indeed parents when they have given birth to the child.
The birth-mum also has the right to keep the child.
Jake and Hannah Graf spoke about the distress they experienced at the Belfast hospital on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast.
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They explained that they were sitting in the hospital car park and tried to check for an update on their baby girl.
However, a nurse told them that they could not be given any information as they were not legal parents.
“I called the ward that we had the number for and this very busy and rushed off her feet nurse said I can’t tell you where the baby is because you are not the legal parents.”
“We are both nearly in tears. The baby had been born an hour prior to that,” they said.
He continued, “This woman is literally saying you are not her legal parents I can’t give you any information as to where she is. And she said “I’m sitting here with the mother now” and I actually said, “I’m with the mother in the car.”
The dad added, “This woman was obviously very unimpressed.”
The new parents eventually met their baby when their surrogate’s birth partner and friend let them in to meet her.
“We were allowed our own little room for the three of us we stayed probably until about 6 in the evening and they talked us through how to bathe her and change her and feed her.”
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Their daughter Millie was born in April 2020 and the parents have loved every moment with her since.
They described their surrogate Laura as an angel and said they were in complete awe of her.
The couple also praised NHS staff who helped deliver their daughter.
“The NHS were amazing considering what was going on and considering that most of the hospital was closed and there was a case of Covid in the maternity ward.”
The couple said their daughter Millie is like “every Christmas rolled into one”.
