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While the state of New York recently overturned a long-held ban on commercial surrogacy, and news about celebrities opting to have children through surrogates — Kim Kardashian, Andy Cohen, Gabrielle Union, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Fallon and many more — continues at a reliable pace, it’s not often that we hear from paid surrogates themselves. Especially now, when the coronavirus pandemic has upended every aspect of life, and particularly those around parenting and pregnancy and childbirth.
But enter Chelsea Hernandez, 32, a Marine Corps wife, mother of two and prenatal home visitor with Head Start in San Diego, Calif., who is in the midst of her second journey as a gestational surrogate — meaning she is paid a fee (ranging wildly from about $10,000 to $50,000, depending on the agency) to carry to term a baby, genetically unrelated to her, for the “intended” parent or parents. And, unsurprisingly, she’s finding this time around to be much stranger and uncertain that the first.
“This is a weird time. I don't know any other word to use,” Hernandez, who shares details of her...