On Wednesday morning's Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio 1, Ryan was joined on the show with sisters Emma and Laura Reid.
Emma Reid was told at a young age that biologically she could have as many children as she wished but would be unable to carry them.
Through the love from Emma's sister, Laura and her best friend, Lee both carried her children.
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Emma shares her story full of heartbreak in suffering multiple miscarriages as well as the joy as she now has a little girl Sophia and twin boys Sean and Harry (born on 28th June 2021) through surrogacy.
Emma opened up to Ryan about when she met her husband Michael when she was 15.
“I had a part-time job when I was in school, she recalled she met him for the first time and just knew she loved him, and how she truly always wanted to be a mammy.”
Emma said: "My babies are 100% my babies, I just have a carrying problem."
“I love kids, I love love,” she said.
When Emma was 17, her Mam brought her to see a gynaecologist because she had late periods, the gynaecologist did a scan and proceeded to ask her had she got sisters.
Emma described how that day her journey to motherhood began, and the gynaecologist told her that she had an underdeveloped womb, and could never carry her own baby.
The doting mother recalled the difficulty of having the conversation with her partner Michael to tell him the news, that she would never be able to carry her own children through pregnancy, she gave her partner the choice to walk away.
To Emma’s delight, Michael lovingly reassured her and said, “Don’t worry about that, I’ll be there, and we’ll have our kids, I’ll be there to support us.”
Late Late Show host Ryan shared he was ‘taken aback’ by Emma’s courage and decency in putting her cards on the table, that it was a grown-up thing to do at such a young age.
The couple got married in 2013, she was 26, she had her first round of IVF, and they needed to do egg retrieval, she did all her treatment in Dublin, because it was her egg and Michael’s sperm.
Emma described how she implanted her daughter Sophie, that was the beginning of her motherhood adventure.
“She was like the missing piece of my heart, she mended the entire family’s heart.”
“We had waited 10 years to do this, and went I got my baby.”
When her eldest daughter was three, she had four blastocysts, Sophie was conceived the first time, she then had a miscarriage, she implanted two blastocysts, after a positive pregnancy test, she had twins, that she also sadly lost.
Her last blastocyst, from Sophie’s cycle, had no more frozen embryos left.
Another round of IVF, on Day 5, Emma had three blastocysts, she didn’t tell anyone, Emma said: “I didn’t tell anyone this time, we went to the scan, and the doctor confirmed there was a heartbeat, it was twins again, but one didn’t make it through, but the other did.”
Emma added: “The surrogate was my best friend, I feel so blessed and so lucky, it’s very sad I can’t give my babies a safe place to grow.”
Filled with emotion Ryan responded with a powerful statement and said: “But, you can give them a place to live.”
The proud mother of three recalled, “I was waiting on the phone call, I saw the doctor come out of the hospital doors, she was coming to say hello, did you ever see a film and you stood still, I rolled down the window, I thought she was going to say Lee collapsed, or roll down the window, she said there’s no heartbeat.”
Determined Emma added: “I just remember shouting what am I going to tell Sophie, I need to get Katy, I only ever see my babies on the screen, I knew I needed to see if my friend was okay, I hugged her, I don’t think I believed it.”
The doctor brought Emma in to see her friend Lee who was her surrogate.
Emma’s sister Laura was her second surrogate and after another round of IVF, there was a heartbeat, another chance.
Emma said: “We went for the second scan, she said Emma, she’s going to tell me we’ve lost again, Emma, you’ve got a second heartbeat.”
In disbelief at the time, she recounted how she jumped and began shouting her sister's name, ‘Laura’, with joy.
Ryan in delight responded and said: “It feels biblical.”, “Sean and Harry.”
He said: “This was a very happy ending to a very difficult scenario, it involves family, love, heartbreak, resilience.”
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