'Money? Surrogacy is about helping other people who are desperate to be parents'

Charlotte Johnson-Daniels, a teacher and mother of five, on the reasons why she decided to help out childless couples

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I’ve got five children – aged 22, 19, 16, 11 and nine years old. But in 2024, I gave birth to another couple’s baby. Joy is now eight months old. I never felt maternally connected to her – I know she’s not mine. I’m still in touch with the parents. They send me messages and photos of Joy at least twice a week. We’ve built up a strong friendship; there needs to be a lot of trust with a surrogate.

Under UK law, my husband and I are the ones registered on the baby’s birth certificate, although the embryo was genetically theirs. It’s only when a baby is six weeks old that the “intended parents” can begin the process of applying for a parental order through the courts, and a new birth certificate is produced. Our court date is coming up.

My husband James always knew that one day I’d like to help somebody else have a child. But it felt important in our surrogacy journey that we waited until our family was complete. It meant that we could then concentrate on putting our energy into helping someone else have a family.

I’d always wanted to be a mum, but in the back of my mind I used to worry: What if I have fertility problems? Although I was lucky to conceive easily, I still understand that desperate need to have a family – and I feel empathy for anybody struggling with infertility.

In 2019, when my youngest child was about three years old, I started looking into becoming a surrogate. I put it on hold in 2020 when the pandemic hit. But two years later, I felt that yearning to do it. I was almost 40. I had already exceeded the age of being able to donate my eggs. If I didn’t do it now, I’d be too old to be a surrogate.