Narelle is an ANZICA accredited clinical health psychologist based in Brisbane with many years of experience of surrogacy cases. She has completed a Churchill fellowship which took her around the world to study surrogacy practice in the USA, Canada, Russia and South-east Asia.

Dr Bronwyn Devine is a gynaecologist and fertility specialist based in Sydney. Having graduated with an MBBS (Hons 1) from The University of Sydney, Bronwyn worked at Westmead Hospital and was admitted to the training program in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She completed the final two years of her fellowship at RHW in Sydney and moved to Canberra with her young family to begin life as a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist. There she worked for Canberra Fertility Centre as Clinical Director and at ISIS Fertility. Bronwyn has completed a Masters of Reproductive Health (UNSW) and Postgraduate Certificate in Public Health (Sexual Health) (University of Melbourne). She is a professional affiliate of the Australian Chapter of Sexual Health Physicians of the Royal Australian College of Physicians.

Bronwyn’s other interests include Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and Congenital Anomalies of the Female Reproductive Tract. She is passionate about improving access to ART services for members of the LGBTIQ community.

Kate has a passion for family law, having worked almost exclusively in the area since entering the legal profession in 2000. In 2010 Kate represented the Applicants in the first Surrogacy case ever determined in Queensland. This was a landmark decision which became a platform for Kate to assist many other couples in Queensland and elsewhere with altruistic surrogacy arrangements and transfer of legal parentage to the intended parents.

Dr Shadi graduated from the University of Alexandria, and gained invaluable experience working in hospitals internationally, including the United States, Gulf countries and Australia. At the University of Illinois, Chicago, Shadi undertook an advanced training in male fertility where he trained in advanced microscopic surgical techniques and developed a patent for a specialised device to assist in male fertility preservation.

Since his arrival to Australia he obtained a fellowship from the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Obstetrics & Gynaecology after further training at St George and Sutherland Hospitals. He also went on to complete three full years of training in advanced and difficult fertility cases, as a part of his subspecialty in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is also a conjoint lecturer at UNSW, where he is writing a Master’s program to teach specialists more about fertility issues using the latest research and evidence in clinical practice.

Shadi currently consults out of Alexandria, Sydney CBD and Kogarah clinic. He also operates from Prince of Wales Hospital, Hurstville Private Hospital and Sussex day surgery.

 Lynne is a Lactation Consultant and Endorsed Midwife in Sydney, Australia. Specialising in antenatal breastfeeding and birth classes and ongoing breastfeeding support. 

Lynne is an internationally certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and helps parents to recieve milk through the Mothers Milk Bank Charity.  

Lynne’s philosophy and motivation to help comes from her own breastfeeding experience with an insufficient breast milk supply with her second child. Lynne wants to give the support and options you need to maximize your opportunities to breastfeed or provide breast milk to your baby the way you want and for however long you want. 

Sarah has a private Psychologist practice as well as working with New Life IVF in Melbourne. Sarah has worked as an infertility counsellor for over 15 years and has been involved in the establishment of clinic surrogacy programs since 2010.  In her private practice she has completed over 30 independent psychological assessment for surrogacy applications.

Anna is a school teacher by training. She works tirelessly works for Surrogacy Australia as the Surrogacy Support Manager for Australia’s only altruistic surrogacy agency. In this role she liaises with professionals around Australia and provides crucial guidance and care to surrogates and intended parents around Australia. In September 2020 she gave birth to a child for  a South Australian gay couple and

Susan is a two-time surrogate and her last journey led to the birth of a baby Arlo in March 2020 just a week before covid shut down. Susan lives in Brisbane and her IPs are in Brisbane too. Susan has had two very different journeys, the most recent being for a beautiful couple Jessie Schuhart-McRae and Andrew  met through the Australian Surrogacy Community – they have become long-term friends. While Susan has had health struggles post birth, she, Jessie & Andrew have been able to maintain and even strengthen their relationship.

Jessica is a 26 years old mum and gestational surrogate from Adelaide who worked with Brisbane gay dads Baden & Nelson. Jessica underwent counselling, legals, medications and four embryo transfers before a successful pregnancy resulted in a baby girl in May 2020 at the peak of COVID restrictions. Baden & Nelson were not able to be at the birth. They were previously strangers, but now have a great relationship and are in talks about a sibling project.

Suzanne lives in Sydney and her IPs – her brother and his gay partner – are in Port Macquarie. Their egg donor was a very close friend of theirs. Their second embryo transfer was successful and other than the usual ailments it all went fairly smoothly. Suzanne birthed a surrogate baby girl in April of 2020 in the midst of Covid lockdown. The birth and hospital stay were challenging but eventually both dads were able to be at the birth and stay in the hospital. Suzanne is still expressing milk for Sofie and she has been exclusively breast fed to date.

Miranda Montrone is a health psychologist and family therapist who has more than 30 years of experience working in infertility and assisted reproduction, including 10 years as an IVF clinic counsellor.  She he has counselled people in approximately 250 surrogacy cases.  This includes pre-surrogacy assessment counselling, during pregnancy counselling, and post surrogacy birth relinquishment counselling and parentage order reports.  Miranda has also done a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 120 pre surrogacy counselling cases.

In 1988,  Alice Clarke’s birth made her Australia’s first IVF surrogate kid. Conceived using donor sperm and her mum’s egg and then implanted into her aunt Linda’s womb.  Since then she has enjoyed being only child of older parents who thought they couldn’t have children. Alice is a freelance journalist.

Katrina Hale is a Sydney-based Psychologist and Infertility Counsellor with over 20 years counselling experience. She is passionate about surrogacy and a strong supporter of all walks of the community that wish to create a family through surrogacy. She is committed to helping Intending Parents and Surrogates and their partners successfully navigate their surrogacy journey together.

Ethan was born in January 2007 in a small town in Ohio, USA to his parents Rodney and Jeff Chiang-Cruise.  His surrogate who he refers to as Aunty Kelly gave birth to Ethan with both his dads and her husband present.  Ethan returned to Australia 2 weeks later with his dads.  He is a Eurasian child with family in Taiwan, Australia and now Ohio.  He has grown up with an ongoing and close relationship with his surrogate (Kelly) and her family.  He is currently in year 8 and has another boy with male same-sex parents (via surrogacy) in his class.  He finds talking about his origin story boring to him – because it is just his life and has always been.  His parents are happy that he is at that place.

Molly’s mum Leonie was a surrogate for a long-time friend. She was 13-14 when Leonie was pregnant and was very good at tying Leonie’s shoelaces in the last month or so.  But she was having a pretty crap time at school so was really only interested in feeling the kicks at night and of course meeting her surro-sibling post birth. Now 17, Molly shares her views.

Ashley had  always known she didn’t want children, but recognised others had a strong desire for family. Ashley decided she had eggs ‘going to waste’ and wanted to help. She has since completed 8 donor cycles and will be doing a 9th in early 2019. Four babies have been born from her donations so far with three recipients awaiting frozen embryo transfers. She has completed donations in NSW, VIC, and Tasmania.

Shaun and his partner Jeremy began their surrogacy journey in 2016, research both local and international options. In 2017 they went through two egg donation cycles with their best friend Steph, and began the surrogacy process in Victoria with their QLD-based surrogate Nicolle and her wife Jane, who they had been introduce to by mutual friends. They were lucky to achieve a pregnancy on the first transfer, and in March 2019 Nicolle gave birth to Shaun and Jeremy’s beautiful son Elio.

Tamzin is a 21 year old who works at Grill’d and lives in Blackburn North. Her Mum and Dad required an egg donor after her Mum was incorrectly diagnosed with early menopause. They used a known donor. Tamzin was conceived on the 2nd attempt and her younger brother was conceived on the 5th attempt. Tamzin has known of her creation story since she was 2 years old.

After a miscarriage that resulted in an Asherman’s diagnosis and too many IVF rounds to count, Sydney-based Trudy & her husband Tom welcomed a beautiful baby girl called Bonnie in August this year, thanks to her sister-in-law, Sarah, who carried their child in New York, and birthed in Sydney after two weeks of hotel quarantine.  She will share their extra-ordinary journey, including the geographical, logistical and legal challenges …. not to mention a global pandemic .  The conversation about surrogacy and the offer to be our surrogate, began when her sister-in-law found a surrogacy branded pen at Trudy’s house from a Growing Families event two years ago

Tamara required a surrogate to carry her second child due to a chronic health condition. In 2013, acute early onset Preeclampsia meant her first  child was born at just 25 weeks. Given her high blood pressure was chronic,  carrying a child again gave Tamara a 60% chance of the same outcome. Instead Tamara’s younger sister offered to carry in 2016 and  they commenced the legal, medical and  psychological screening. Sarah Bevan Family Lawyers helped Tamara and John with the legal side of the journey.

John & Tamara’s daughter was born in March 2018.  Tamara will discuss their journey  and the intricacies of keeping surrogacy in the family.

Jemma started donating her eggs to both gay and heterosexual recipients when she was 23 years old. A Queenslander and now 31, Jemma has now donated 12 times in both QLD and NSW. She enjoys reaching out to recipients on the Egg Donation Australia forum. Already five children have been born to couples with the help of Jemma’s eggs. She will discus the egg donation process, what motivates her and what expectations altruistic donors have of recipients.

Tyler-Rose is 17 years old and has stood by her mums side over the last 7 years as she rides the roller coaster we call surrogacy. She has supported her mum Charmaine through three surrogacy journeys – each with different intended parents, and three pregnancy losses. Her mum is starting another journey with interstate IPs. Tyler was 14 when her first surro-subling was born three years ago.