January 20, 2011, Plano, Texas — It was announced this week that Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban welcomed a new baby December 28 with the assistance of a gestational carrier. Like the famous Nashville parents, an IVF Plano couple pursued their dreams of parenthood using the same alternative reproduction method.
Texas law allows for gestational carriers, in which the pregnant woman does not share a biological connection with the baby or babies. Gestational carriers help women who cannot carry a pregnancy to term, offering their uteruses to nurture and grow a couple’s fertilized egg, also called a zygote.
A surrogate, a term mistakenly used interchangeably with gestational carrier, provides her own egg, fertilized in the lab with the intended father’s sperm or donor sperm.
IVF Plano patient Courtney Barrett turned to a gestational carrier after miscarriages tragically ended all five of her pregnancies achieved through intrauterine insemination (IUI), an in-office fertility treatment where sperm is placed directly into the uterus at the optimal time.
“Our goal is to find the least invasive, most straightforward path to parenthood before turning to alternative reproductive treatments,” says Dr. James Douglas, M.D. “It became clear that a gestational carrier offered the Barretts their best chances for starting a family.”
Devastated at another pregnancy loss but hopeful that a gestational carrier would finally resolve their infertility struggles, Courtney Barrett shared her plans in February 2009 with a friend and co-worker at SMU’s Bursar’s office. That day, Kelly Milazzo stepped forward as the woman who would eventually carry and deliver the couple’s twin baby girls.
After extensive screening, IVF Plano scheduled an in-vitro fertilization cycle. IVF Plano would prepare Kelly’s uterus for implantation and meticulously develop and monitor Courtney’s follicle growth that would result in retrieving healthy, viable eggs from Courtney. Once Courtney’s eggs were combined in the lab (in vitro means ‘in the lab’) with her husband David’s sperm, IVF Plano embryologists painstakingly transferred two embryos into Kelly’s uterus.
The gestational carrier now began her nine-month journey with the Barrett family. Camille and Avery were born January 2010 and will celebrate their first birthday next week.
“It’s my story and it gives me chills,” says Barrett. “It wasn’t an easy journey, with emotional challenges along the way, but David and I stayed focused on the end result—a baby.”
The new mom recalls that Dr. Douglas discussed all the options and helped the Barretts find an agency that would match them with a gestational carrier. As it turned out, they didn’t need an agency after Kelly offered her help. Dr. Douglas met with the Barretts and Milazzos to present a timeline, answer questions and explain their financial options.
“He held our hands through the whole thing,” says Barrett.
For anyone considering alternative reproduction, Barrett says it’s worth it. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
About James W. Douglas and IVF Plano
IVFPlano , one of the nation’s leading full-service infertility practices, provides advanced Infertility and Reproductive Endocrinology services to patients in the Dallas Metroplex and throughout Texas and Oklahoma. Since 1990, Dr James W. Douglas has been recognized for outstanding pregnancy rates, cutting-edge laboratory procedure and compassionate care.
For more information, please visit www.ivfplano.com.
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