Downers Grove Magazine | Health
D
enise Conner’s husband, Kevin, had just run home to check on their 3-yearold twin daughters when her obstetrician made the call for her to deliver via cesarean section. From there, things moved quickly. “Unfortunately, my husband didn’t make it back by the time I was in the operating room,” Conner said, so he missed the birth. However, Conner was far from alone during her delivery. After all, the baby’s parents were by her side. This may sound a bit like the opening of a brainteaser, but actually it was the culminating moment of Conner’s journey as a gestational surrogate, a journey that unknowingly began years prior when she and her husband faced fertility issues as they attempted to start their family. Conner shared that before “finally getting pregnant” with their now 11-yearold girls, they explored numerous options available through modern reproductive medicine, including reaching out to Family Source Consultants, an agency that specializes in alternative family creation through surrogacy and/or egg donation. Family Source Consultants “had provided us with such personal and empathetic responses and information during our journey to parenthood,” Conner said, and the agency stayed top of mind for her even after her daughters were born.
Giving the Gift of Parenthood Denise Conner’s experiences with the heartache of infertility led her to become a gestational surrogate BY VALERIE HARDY
DENISE PREGNANT AS GESTATIONAL SURROGATE MOTHER. 64
DOWNERS GROVE MAGAZINE
Conner and her husband were beyond grateful to have fulfilled their desire to have children, and although Conner loved being pregnant and wanted to experience it again, they knew that “two were going to be enough” for them. This was largely based on their prior infertility challenges, their respective ages when their daughters were born (Conner was 37 years old and Kevin is 8 years her senior), and the blood-clotting disorder Conner had developed. Yet the compassion shown to them by the owners of Family Source Consultants echoed in Conner’s mind, and she kept in touch with them, ultimately filling out a gestational surrogate profile during a surrogate-recruiting event in the hopes of helping another couple experience parenthood. With her family’s blessing, Conner
