Help Joanne & Anthony fund surrogacy for baby#3!

Hi, my name is Joanne. My husband, Anthony, and I suffered from infertility, miscarriages, and a very traumatic birth. Here is our story that leads to why we are asking for support. Surrogacy can cost $125,000-$200,000. 

After several miscarriages, Anthony and I decided to do IVF to help us get pregnant and expand our family. We are lucky and had 4 embabies (embryos). We were so excited and couldn’t wait to meet them all. We wanted a big family! Our first transfer was successful and Joanne was pregnant with Autumn!

A year ago, I rushed to the hospital with severe signs of pre-eclampsia while pregnant with Autumn. I was 35 weeks pregnant with our miracle IVF baby. After a very eventful labor, Autumn was born. Luckily, she was perfectly healthy being 4 weeks early and having the cord wrapped around her twice!

Once the placenta was delivered, I began to hemorrhage. Doctors moved fast and rushed me back to the OR and did a more thorough procedure and placed a balloon in my uterus to tamponade my uterus. I continued bleeding and was moved quickly to the IR suite and was in there 2.5 hours. They did a procedure called Uterine Artery Embolization (UAE). Basically it helps block the blood flow to my uterus.

After hours of waiting and many units of blood products to see if the bleeding slowed or stopped, it did not. My uterus remained boggy. They came back to pull the balloon that was in my uterus and once again the hemorrhaging continued. They said the words we did not want to hear. I needed an emergent hysterectomy to save my life.

All I could think was I do not want to die. My babies need me. I can’t. I was scared, Anthony was scared.

Surgery was successful and I recovered very well. Still have minor issues here and there. Physically, I am all mostly healed up. Emotionally and mentally, we are in a much better place than a few months ago. We were mourning the loss of seeing the 3 embryos become babies, mourning the labor and delivery Joanne also wanted, mourning the loss of being pregnant (something Joanne loved), mourning the loss of her uterus, mourning the life we envisioned and the large family we always wanted, processing all the trauma related to my labor and delivery and post partum phase of not being physically capable of holding Autumn and nursing her from day 1. The dream of having the 3 embabies, we already grew to love, and the large family we dreamed of, were stolen from us. Thinking I would never have another child.

After the healing, Chick and I still felt we really wanted to have another child and meet another one of our embabies. We researched surrogacy and and our dreams of expanding our family became a reality.

We were match fairly quickly and love the agency we are with! Our gestational carrier is an angel who is helping us complete our family!

However, costs of having a baby via surrogate/gestational carrier is extremely expensive. Ranging from $125,000 to $200,000.

We truly appreciate any and all the love and support you can share with us during this time to help complete our family!