Four Sisters Having Babies for European Couples in Mexico's Secret Surrogacy Trade Alasdair Baverstock - Daily Mail
go to original May 6, 2016

Family business: The Hernandez sisters (from left to right Milagros, 30, Martha, 30, Paulina, 22, and Maria, 27, are all pregnant with surrogate babies - all of whom will grow up on the other side of the world from Mexico, where their birth mothers live with their families. (Francisco Palmas)

The four sisters stand gossiping underneath the washing line, the growing baby bumps visible under tightly-fitting tops.

But the unemployed Hernandez sisters are not looking forward to the birth of much-wanted babies. Instead, they are 'wombs-for-hire' - willing to put their bodies through agony in order to earn thousands from desperate Europeans, prepared to pay more than these single mothers could earn in 20 years for their chance to have their own biological child.

This is a family business - one which is not discussed outside the walls of the home, just one cog in Mexico's secretive, and sometimes corrupt, surrogacy industry.

‘Our neighbours accuse us of running an infant trafficking ring,' shrugs Martha, who is four months pregnant with a baby being 'bought' by a gay Frenchman.

It was oldest sister Milagros who first stumbled across the 'rent-a-womb' business in 2013, ‘through word of mouth, which is how everything gets done here in Tabasco’, the impoverished state where they live - and where the trade is booming.  

The decision she made was purely practical: the Hernandez family is a sprawling one, all living in close quarters, and money is more than tight so ‘the whole family needs to be put to work’.
As a young single mother from a poor background in Villahermosa, your job options are either waitress or prostitute. Surrogacy was an easy way to ensure a future for my own children.

...After all, the average $14,000 USD pay-off is following a successful delivery, as well as having all living expenses covered by the client throughout the nine-month pregnancy. The women's brother, who works for minimum wage in the state capital, would take nearly 10 years to equal the amount.

Read the rest at Daily Mail

Related: Mexico Is Taking Steps to Avoid Becoming the Next Surrogate Mother Capital (EFE)

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