Sophie Tristram from Wolverhampton, U.K. is a brand new mom, thanks to the gift of surrogacy offered by her best friend, Emma Graves. Tristram suffers from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder clogging the lungs and digestive system with mucus. While women with cystic fibrosis can often endure pregnancy with no issues, Tristram’s doctors warned pregnancy could be fatal for her due to a particular bacteria in her lungs that could develop in an illness similar to pneumonia.
Devastated she would be unable to carry a child, Mrs. Tristram shares with the BBC:
“Every woman thinks that they’re going to be able to carry their own child and to be told that I couldn’t do that took me a long while to get my head around.”
When best friend Emma Graves and husband Ben heard that the Tristram’s decided to investigate surrogacy, Ben suggested that Emma consider stepping in for the role. Emma mulled over the idea, and thoroughly discussed it with Ben and their two daughters, aged 16 and.
When they all finally agreed, the Grave’s contacted their friends and made their offer. The Tristram’s couldn’t believe the generosity of their friends, and immediately began taking steps to move forward with the idea.
The couples went through a surrogacy agency in order to make sure everything was handled properly, and discovered Emma had successfully become pregnant on the first day of the coronavirus lockdowns in the U.K. This meant that the Tristram’s would be unable to attend doctors appointments or even commingle with the Grave’s through Emma’s pregnancy.
“Emma had to go to all of her appointments on her own, which was obviously a lot harder,” Mrs Tristram said. “But Emma was absolutely fantastic, she kept us involved at every niggle, every kick, every hiccup. We felt very involved, even though we couldn’t see her for the first part of the pregnancy.”
Of her experience as a surrogate, Mrs. Graves shares:
“It didn’t happen the way we’d planned… we were going to go for weekends away and have pampering sessions. Covid got in everybody’s way.”
In November, Emma had a successful labor and delivery, welcoming baby Harry. The Tristram’s have been enjoying their newest addition, and only wish the pandemic wasn’t preventing the two families from spending one-on-one time together.
“There’s nothing I could ever do or give her or say that would put into words how thankful we are for what she did,” Sophie said.
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