Sep 2, 2026 · 44 min · 15 segments
Birth rarely goes exactly as planned. When Jessica's surrogacy journey unexpectedly ended in an emergency C-section, the moment she had been envisioning all along didn't happen the way she expected…
Whitney HallHost
Going back to, you know, obviously the birth itself was really important to you just with your, with your history being a doula.
What were some of the things that you held onto or kind of, you were like, this needs to be the right match whenever you were thinking about that delivery day?
The relationship was big for me.
The one thing I knew beyond anything was that if it was possible, I wanted a local match.
I wanted the parents because the doula side of things where you're walking alongside this mom and these parents and I still wanted to be able to do that as a surrogate.
I wanted them to come to the doctor's appointments.
I wanted mom to be able to feel baby kick.
I wanted... them to be as involved as they felt.
I wanted when the time for birth, I wanted the relationship to be comfortable enough.
I mean, we're not, you know, like it's obviously just so individual to each person, but feel comfortable them to feel comfortable being in the room, you know, and being there for that.
And so I think for me, that whole birth is hard.
And I knew that I don't enjoy giving birth.
I don't know how many people do, but like, I love the pregnancy aspect, but there's no getting around how hard that process is.
Right.
And so just thinking like, what's going to make it worth it.
Imagining the room at the end, like mom holding baby dad, like me just finally like, okay, we did it.
And just having that moment while they're loving on their baby.
And so I think that's, That was my focus really was that end part and how I wanted that to feel.
And that's what informed really my matching choices, my doctor choices, my, you know, just all of it leading up to that moment and it being as comfortable for everybody involved as possible.
And that's a great way to approach it because I think it can be so easy to, you know, get into the nitty gritty and details and all of those details are important.
But like you said, keeping in mind that end goal and I mean, what a beautiful picture, like what is that room going to look like at the end? Yeah.
Going back to, you know, obviously the birth itself was really important to you just with your, with your history being a doula.
What were some of the things that you held onto or kind of, you were like, this needs to be the right match whenever you were thinking about that delivery day?
The relationship was big for me.
The one thing I knew beyond anything was that if it was possible, I wanted a local match.
I wanted the parents because the doula side of things where you're walking alongside this mom and these parents and I still wanted to be able to do that as a surrogate.
I wanted them to come to the doctor's appointments.
I wanted mom to be able to feel baby kick.
I wanted... them to be as involved as they felt.
I wanted when the time for birth, I wanted the relationship to be comfortable enough.
I mean, we're not, you know, like it's obviously just so individual to each person, but feel comfortable them to feel comfortable being in the room, you know, and being there for that.
And so I think for me, that whole birth is hard.
And I knew that I don't enjoy giving birth.
I don't know how many people do, but like, I love the pregnancy aspect, but there's no getting around how hard that process is.
Right.
And so just thinking like, what's going to make it worth it.
Imagining the room at the end, like mom holding baby dad, like me just finally like, okay, we did it.
And just having that moment while they're loving on their baby.
And so I think that's, That was my focus really was that end part and how I wanted that to feel.
And that's what informed really my matching choices, my doctor choices, my, you know, just all of it leading up to that moment and it being as comfortable for everybody involved as possible.
And that's a great way to approach it because I think it can be so easy to, you know, get into the nitty gritty and details and all of those details are important.
But like you said, keeping in mind that end goal and I mean, what a beautiful picture, like what is that room going to look like at the end? Yeah.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.