Surrogate pregnancy: clinical features of forty-four cases

This record analysis describes the obstetric outcomes of a series of 44 pregnancies occurring in 41 women who underwent donor insemination as participants in a private surrogate parenting program between 1981 and 1985. The typical surrogate mother was 25 years old with a high school education and married with one child 2 years old. Twenty-nine percent of the sample reported no source of income other than welfare. Two thirds of the histories included at least one of the following perinatal risk factors: smoking (n = 19), low annual income (n = 15), unmarried status (n = 12), or parity of 0 or greater than 4 (n = 5). Six losses occurred in the first or second trimester. Thirty-nine viable infants were born to 37 women and include one set of fraternal twins. Three of the singleton newborns weighed less than 2500 gm; newborn morbidity after preterm delivery occurred in one case. Women with complications (n = 14) were similar in maternal age, education, parity, annual income, marital status, and smoking history to women without complications (n = 24). A role for psychosocial stress and financial motivation in the etiology of these outcomes is explored.