Many believe that the best feeling in the world for any woman is that of becoming a mother. While most women out there get to experience it at least once, there are some who can’t have children for medical reasons. But to this problem science offers solutions and in such cases, surrogacy has become a viable and increasingly popular option.
This option is also available to men who can't become fathers on their own. Since the couple gets a child and the woman gets paid for carrying the child, it's a win-win situation for both parties. However, things can occasionally go awry, as Jessica Allen learned the hard way.
She Decided To Help People Have Children
Jessica, a 31-year-old from California, already had two kids of her own when she decided to become a surrogate mother. She believed it was a good way to help people who are unable to have a child experience the joy of parenthood. Plus, it gave her another source of income for her family.
And so Jessica joined an agency, Omega Family Global, and signed up to carry a child for a Chinese couple. However, the unexpected happened when she was impregnated with both the couple's child and her own son at the same time and nearly ended up losing him for good.
Her Own Son Was Kept "Hostage" In The Process
When Jessica was implanted with an embryo for the Chinese couple, she could never have anticipated what would happen next. She was surprised when one of her medical checkups revealed that she was carrying two babies, but she was astonished when one of them turned out to be her own son.
In a rare process called superfetation, Jessica had been impregnated two separate times in the same gestation period: once by the couple and once by her fiancé, 34-year-old Wardell Jasper. Her unusual condition gave rise to an unforeseen legal battle for custody of her biological son.
She Was Locked In A Legal Battle With The Surrogate Agency
Once Jessica and Wardell found out one of the newborns was theirs, they asked Omega Family Global to help them get their son back. But the agency tried to make them buy their own child, and even the Chinese couple demanded $18,000 to $22,000 as compensation for taking care of their son.
Omega Family Global wanted $3,000 for their son’s birth certificate and $9,200 for all the expenses the Chinese couple paid while he was in the womb. Enraged, Jessica and Wardell sued the agency for child abduction, child abuse, battery, and extortion, among other things.
All She Wanted Was To Give The Joy Of Motherhood
When Jessica signed up to carry an unknown couple's unborn child in her womb, it was purely out of the kindness of her heart. It helped, though, that she would earn $30,000 including expenses, a sum that would significantly boost her family’s financial status.
Nonetheless, Jessica said her primary goal was to make other women happy, even if it involved carrying someone else’s pregnancy. She thought that it wouldn't be fair for some women in the world to live their lives without experiencing the bond between mother and child.
An Agency Matched Her With A Couple
People who live in countries where surrogacy is banned often travel to another country that permits it. Because it's illegal in China, a Chinese couple linked up with Omega Family Global in San Diego, California, to hire someone to carry their child. The agency offered Jessica's services.
In April 2016, the couple agreed to entrust Jessica with their child. A single male embryo from the Chinese couple was implanted in her uterus at a reproductive clinic in nearby Irvine. About 9 days later, blood tests confirmed that the implantation had been successful.
She Found Out She Was Carrying Twins
Six weeks after her pregnancy was confirmed, Jessica went to a medical center for an examination. The physician examining her womb informed her that she was carrying two embryos. Though this was a very unusual development, she was reassured that an embryo splitting was normal.
The physician also explained that the embryonic split meant that the second child was an identical twin of the first one. Jessica was startled when she first heard the news but glad for the Chinese couple. When word reached the couple, they compensated her an additional $5,000.
She Wasn't Allowed To See The Babies After Delivering Them
On December 12, 2016, Jessica gave birth to twin boys, bringing them into the world via cesarean section at Riverside Community Hospital in California. But before she could see the newborn boys after she woke up from the surgery, they were taken away from her.
This was a clear breach of Jessica's contract, which stated that she would be given an hour with them. Although it came as a disappointment to her, she accepted that she may never meet the children, since she had always known they wouldn't be hers.
She Noticed Something Odd About The Twins
Jessica saw the twins for the first time in a photograph. After staring at the picture for a few moments, it was clear to her that the babies were not identical. One of them looked completely Chinese, while the other's skin tone was much fairer.
Jessica was confused by what she saw, but she didn’t bother to discuss it with anyone at the time. To help clear up her confusion, she later called a caseworker at Omega Family Global, who assured her that identical twins didn't always look exactly alike.
One Of The Twins Was Her Biological Son
A month after the boys' birth, Jessica was sent another photo of them with the message, “They are not the same, right?” After receiving the message and the picture, she began to doubt once again that the twins were actually identical, but she ignored the feeling.
Still, the thought kept nagging at Jessica, so she requested a DNA test for the twins. After another month, the test results came back with shocking news: the second child was not an identical twin of the implanted embryo but the son of her and Wardell.
The Rare Condition Of Superfetation
When Jessica and Wardell found out that they had conceived their own son along with the Chinese couple's son, they were puzzled. However, they later learned that it was possible for a woman to have two different pregnancies at once in a process called superfetation.
Researchers such as David Haig, a biology professor at Harvard University, have pointed out that the odds of an expectant mother conceiving another child during her term are very slim. In fact, superfetation is such a rare condition that some people don’t believe it exists.
She Was Determined To Get Her Child Back
Jessica and Wardell were horrified when they realized that their child had been claimed by someone else. They were determined to bring their son, whom they named Malachi, back home. Little did they know just how difficult getting him back would turn out to be.
Jessica was completely heartbroken that the baby she had carried for 9 months for someone else was actually her own son. She and Wardell decided to do whatever it took to reclaim what was rightfully theirs, but this would prove to be a lengthy and expensive legal battle.
She Contacted The Surrogate Agency To No Avail
When Jessica contacted Omega Family Global for help, the agency told her that the Chinese couple was ready to give Malachi back if she and Wardell paid them a $22,000 compensation. She was shocked, informing the agency that they couldn't afford such a huge amount.
It became clear later on that the Chinese couple was being manipulated by Omega Family Global, which was trying to profit from the situation by looking for a couple to adopt Malachi. Jessica also learned that if the agency couldn’t find any prospects, the couple would seek someone in China to adopt him.
The Agency’s Demands Were Unrealistic
Omega Family Global did everything it could to keep Jessica away from her son. Things got so bad that she and Wardell started to lose any hope of getting Malachi back. The agency was asking her to adopt her own son, which was entirely unreasonable.
The agency never stopped trying to get Jessica to pay for her son's return, but she couldn't even if she'd wanted to. She couldn’t blame the intended mother either because it was not her fault, though Omega Family Global attempted to pit the women against each other.
She Tried To Get Her Son Back 3 Times
During an interview, Jessica shared that she and Wardell tried to get their son back 3 times, but Omega Family Global tricked them every time. First, the agency gave the excuse that the Chinese couple didn’t want to grant it permission to hand over Malachi.
The second time, the agency told Jessica that the couple was again thinking about giving the baby up for adoption. On the third try, Omega Family Global gave yet another excuse just to buy enough time to maintain custody of Malachi until he can be adopted.
Finally, Malachi Came Home
Jessica and Wardell eventually concluded that the only way they could get their child back was to sue Omega Family Global, so they hired a lawyer. As a result, Malachi came back to them two months after his birth. When she finally held her son in her arms, Jessica smothered him with hugs and kisses.
It was a very emotional reunion. Jessica and Wardell may have won custody of their son, but the lawsuit put them in severe debt. They still don’t have Malachi’s birth certificate or Social Security card, but at least he is with them. Today, Malachi is 10 months old and doing fine.
She's Never Going To Risk Losing A Child Again
Jessica said that she would never be a surrogate mother again because it was a nightmare, the worst experience she ever had in her life. She hopes that her story will be a cautionary tale for other women who are thinking about going down this path.
Though Jessica had planned to carry someone else's child several times, she won’t even consider it now after her harrowing experience. She wants no other mother to go through what she had to endure, so she urges women to think a hundred times before surrendering their parental rights to third parties.