Carole Horlock
is a woman who rented out her womb and is known as "the most prolific in the world" after
having 13 babies for other couples
.
But what supposes happiness for being able to overcome some gestational impediment, has a dark chapter in her life: one of the children she had from her turned out to be her own husband's.
Carole gave birth to the
9-pound baby in June 2004
by surrogacy
, believing it to be another couple's child, created from her egg but with the other woman's husband's sperm.
However, the couple carried out a DNA test
six weeks after the birth
and discovered that the baby was Carole's husband Paul's.
Carole Horlock holding the first surrogate baby she gave birth to.
adoption attempt
Faced with such a scenario of anguish and bewilderment, Carole and Paul agreed that they could still adopt him.
But she was devastated when
she broke off contact with the other couple
and now she is confessing.
"I can not stop thinking about him".
Currently, the woman from the Essex region of England is on the Adoption Contacts Registry in the hope that he would like to meet her
when he turns 18 this year
.
Carole, whose achievement was inscribed in Guinness World Records, explains: "I am immensely proud of my career as a surrogate mother and of having 13 babies who are loved by their families."
And he admits: “Surrogacy has brought me and the families I helped immeasurable joy, but it also led me to the darkest moments of my life.”
Beyond the wonderfulness of the act itself, he remarks that there is a dark side when things go wrong:
"anguish, a roller coaster of emotions and a devastating taste
. "
Two girls born in February 1997, babies two and three she had by this method.
Created by accident in an act of love
The case of Carol and Paul's baby,
now 55 and 69 years old
, was their ninth experience.
"This little boy was
accidentally gestated through an act of love between me and my partner,"
she told the
Mirror
newspaper .
He assures that he did not know anything when they handed it over, and when they found out and reconsidered the situation in the end they decided to
let them keep it
.
“People ask me how I was able to deliver this baby if it was mine, but many of the surrogate babies I've given have been biologically mine,” Carol points out.
“The difference was that this child was also Paul's.
Not a single day did we stop thinking about him.
We live with the hope that he will be aware of us and, when he turns 18, he wants to see us, ”he insists on his goal.
Carole with baby number nine, the one in the story.
She was born in 2004 and through her DNA he discovered that she was the son of her husband.
Pregnancy, claim and decisions
In 2003, Carole agreed to become a surrogate mother to a UK woman and inseminated herself with the businessman husband's sperm.
As part of the experience, surrogate mothers are advised
not to have sex if possible until they become pregnant.
"I never promised that I would not have sexual relations, but my husband and I took precautions," she justifies herself.
Of course, the news of the pregnancy filled the couple who turned to them with joy.
They attended medical studies and even childbirth
.
Carole, for example, even stayed with them for the next week.
Six weeks later the problem broke out.
Furious, the alleged father called the surrogacy agency to complain that
a DNA test showed the baby was not his
.
And a second test confirmed it, points out the British media.
“It was a terrible situation for everyone.
I remember saying repeatedly to the surrogacy agency, 'Do you want it?'" she reveals. And she warns those who are not so informed: "As a surrogate, you are having a baby for someone else: don't bond, don't you prepare to be your son.
For nine months you distance yourself mentally from the creature
."
Carole Horlock says she prepares not to get emotionally involved with the babies.
But with the fait accompli, they had to make a decision that was too complex: what were they going to do if the couple returned it?
And what to do now that they knew it was biologically theirs?
Carol and Paul, with children from other couples
Paul (69) is the second husband of Carole (55).
They had no children together, although they both had from previous relationships
.
Carole says she had to have an honest talk with her daughters about whether they would keep the baby or give it up for adoption.
“In the end, Paul made the decision.
He said,
'If they don't want it, we raise it
. '
We decided that if they still loved him and wanted to keep him, we would let him stay with them," he reconstructs the key moment.
“It was a very important decision.
This boy was different because he also belonged to my partner, and we had not had a child together.
While it was a heartbreaking decision, I still think it was the right one for him and 'his parents'
," says Paul.
And he resorts to an argument similar to that of Carol: “I spent nine months believing that this child was from the couple.
I did not think of him as mine nor did I invest emotions in the pregnancy.
In fact, they had already started thinking about the next couple they were going to help, which would be Carol's baby 14."
record woman holds thirteenth baby by surrogacy.
"It was only when I took care of my two daughters after their birth that I loved them as a mother should," Carol adds in the same vein to understand her role in the story.
contact yes or no
After the child was adopted by the couple, Carole notes that they kept in touch by mail for a few years.
But "relations broke down completely" and the letters stopped.
“I am in contact with almost all my surrogate babies, but not with him.
As the years go by we think of him all the time.
Paul has developed a heart condition and it would break my heart if I never met him
”, adds drama with an extra fact.
After resorting to technology, the woman admits that she found on social networks a photo of him, six or seven years old,
on his mother's Facebook profile.
"It's a natural curiosity if you've created a human being, I couldn't contain myself", she justifies herself and regrets not being able to be in contact.
Carol and Paul's goal now is to hopefully come June.
"When babies are adopted, you can register an interest and leave a letter so that
once they turn 18 they can know who you are and if they want to contact you," he
reports, and, of course, that letter was sent. It only remains to wait a few months for see if we can write another chapter in this fantastic story.
