Friend carries baby for woman without a womb

Charity worker Fiona O'Driscoll, 38, is unable to have children naturally because of her rare condition.

But five days before her wedding to business consultant husband Andrew, 39, their friend Kate Housley offered her own womb so they could try for an IVF baby.

Mrs Housley is now 29-weeks pregnant and due to give birth in October.

Mrs O'Driscoll, from Hornsey, suffers from Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome which affects around one in 5,000 women.

She said: "I was born without a womb, although I do have ovaries, so I knew that if I wanted a family I would need to use a surrogate mother or adopt.

"We looked at adoption, but it's almost impossible to get a baby, and we really wanted to create one that is genetically ours." The O'Driscolls met Mrs Housley and her husband Dennis, a helicopter engineer, through the not-for-profit agency Surrogacy UK and spent seven months getting to know them.

Then Mrs Housley, 32, who already has an eight-year-old son, Nathan, and a daughter Ruth, six, was implanted with eggs created from Mrs O'Driscoll's own eggs and her husband's sperm.

Mrs O'Driscoll, who works for Save The Children, said: "Two nail-biting weeks later, Kate, Andrew and I were all together in a coffee shop in central London when the call came through that she was pregnant and we all burst into tears.

"When Kate and Dennis offered to carry our baby before the wedding we were elated. It felt absolutely incredible that I was starting out married life with the same chance as any other couple of having children."

"You read horror stories about surrogacycosting a fortune or the surrogate-trying to keep the baby, but the truth is, it's about a good friend giving you the most extraordinary gift imaginable."

Mrs Housley, from Portsmouth, said: "I enjoy being pregnant, but I feel very different towards this bump compared to when I was carrying my own children.

"I don't stroke or talk to it, I'm much more detached - I suppose it's because I've bonded with the parents, not the baby.

"I don't want any more babies of my own. I've had mine and they have brought us happiness and everything else. This way everybody wins. I get to be pregnant which I love, and somebody else gets a baby that they want very much."

The couples said they trust each other but are calling for a law to make surrogacy legally binding. Mrs O'Driscoll said: "If we get cold feet, Kate could be literally left holding the baby. The law doesn't protect anyone."