The nexus between self-perception and behavioural responses of gestational surrogates’ risk experiences

Abstract

Despite associated risk and public concern, commercial surrogacy remains a thriving business, and opportunities for gestational surrogates continue to exist. Surrogacy arrangements have been found to place gestational surrogates at risk, with little support or guidance to help them understand or mitigate these risk factors. This study aims to investigate the self-perception of gestational surrogates through their reflection of their own risk-related behaviours throughout the surrogacy process. Data were retrieved through interviews with fifteen Thai women who had first-hand experience of commercial surrogacy, and thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. Findings showed that the perceptions of ‘trust,’ ‘commitment to obligation,’ and ‘unacceptable actions’ reflected their behaviours exposing risks to detrimental behaviours, disempowerment, and isolation. Understanding these perceptions would be advantageous for health planning programmes or policies in surrogacy practice to promote women’s heath as a whole.

Keywords:

• Commercial surrogacy
• gestational surrogacy
• perception
• self-perception
• surrogates
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Elizabeth Sullivan, Associate Professor Alex Wang, and Dr. Jane Walker who advised the data analysis and supervised this study. The authors would also like to thank all of the women who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).