Mothering Miracles: Triad native shares her love of surrogacy

Shadina Blunt is in the business of making sure that women who want to become mothers have the easiest experience possible.

She plans to be in the business for a very long time.

“It’s a passion. When I’m 120 years old, I’ll still be doing this work to the day I cross over,” she passionately said.

The three-time surrogate and women’s advocate is the founder/owner of Surrogacy Miracles and Consulting. She also is the founder of the nonprofit Surrogacy Miracles Family Foundation, where her goal is “to help minority families with the cost of their surrogacy journey by offering financial grants to support their dream.” The non-profit is designed to help financially support families — especially families of color and same sex-couples — who seek gestational surrogacy to grow their families after suffering in silence after pregnancy loss, fertility issues, and societal stigmas and shame.

With a master’s in Healthcare Business Management from Western Governors University and an Associate Degree in Nursing and Applied Science from Guilford Technical Community College, Blunt started her career as a nurse before transitioning into working in surrogacy by becoming a gestational carrier. Blunt also released a children’s book “Miracles to Motherhood: Mary’s Gift of Life” in December 2021. This book follows two families whose chance meeting leads them through gestational surrogacy and helps answer many of the questions children of intended families and carrier families tend to have about the gestational surrogacy process.

Growing up in High Point, and graduating from T. Wingate Andrews High School, the mother of three and soonto-be grandmother, decided to become a gestational carrier in 2017 after seeing the women who were having difficulties getting pregnant at the obstetrician and gynecological office she worked at.

“A lot of women would come in and either they couldn’t get pregnant or couldn’t sustain a pregnancy. I decided that I wanted to become a gestation carrier just like that. I had my children very early. At the time, I only had two children, and I thought, well, I got pregnant very easily myself. If that’s what they need, then I can do it,” Blunt said.

“So I did my research on what surrogacy looked like. I learned the different types of surrogates that you could become and made a decision on how I wanted to move forward. I signed up with an agency initially and began my journey there.”

Whether you are carrying for yourself or another family, Blunt admits that is no walk in the park. Blunt has carried a total of six children, three for three different families.

“With surrogacy and pregnancy in general, there’s a high ratio, especially in Black women, where the mortality rate is very high. So pregnancy is hard on the female body. It’s not easy to get pregnant or to carry a pregnancy fullterm successfully without any complications. People think it’s very easy to get pregnant, but it’s not. There’s a lot of things that have to align in order to make pregnancy.”

Throughout her journeys as a gestational carrier, Blount said that communication and taking into account the intended parents’ emotions are key.

“Each journey was great. I don’t have anything negative to say about any of the families that I carried for. They all were very caring for me throughout the course of the journey. They all were emotional going through that. I could really see their genuine concern as they went through the journey of what this looked like and how this would affect them throughout the course of the journey. All three of the journeys were heterosexual relationships for men and women couples. And so in all of the journeys, the mom would present emotion around, one, not being able to carry themselves, and two, being able to look at me carry for them. So it still was a big process for them that they had to take in as we went through the journey. So I always had to be mindful of that and communication and how every step of the journey might affect them.”

A few of those journeys have been in the public eye.

Blunt has been a guest on BRAVO’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” as a surro- gate to Grammy-award-winning singersongwriter Kandi Burruss Tucker and her husband Todd Tucker. That journey has since gained her some fans and the title of a celebrity gestational carrier. She has appeared on “Married to Medicine” with co-owner and business partner Dr. Jackie Walters.

“When that came to light and was presented on such a large platform, a lot of my family and friends that I don’t see on a day-to-day basis, had no idea that I had even done a journey earlier because it wasn’t necessarily announced but it wasn’t like we were hiding it. It just wasn’t necessarily announced throughout my family outside of those that would see me on a daily basis,” Blunt said. “When I initially was asked, I was hesitant because I didn’t necessarily have the desire to want to do another surrogacy journey. It initially started as a consulting situation where I would consult them on trying to find a carrier and what that looked like so they would have a positive experience and communication with each other. We quickly learned that what they needed in a gestational carrier in order to feel comfortable is what I could provide for them. So we decided to continue to get together and I decided to share it on such a large platform in order to bring more awareness of surrogacy to my community for black women.”

After having done several media interviews surrounding surrogacy, her mission and passion continue to push her to ensure women across the nation know about surrogacy and its benefits. For Blunt, it is about educating women on the risks and options.

“The mortality rate is significantly higher for Black women than any other nationality. We, as Black women, suffer from fibroids. The ratio of women that suffer from fibroids in the Black community is higher than any other nationality, as well. Pregnancy loss and or delivery loss is significantly higher, as well. And I think we don’t understand, see the statistics or recognize it in our community because we don’t feel comfortable talking about it,” she explained. So you could be in a room with, say, four or five girlfriends, and over half of them have experienced some type of infertility, whether they had fibroids or have struggled to get pregnant. It’s just not talked about.”

Blunt said she stays in contact with families and is delighted to see the children she birthed with their families.

“We still communicate. Kandi texted me literally two weeks ago just to check in on me and so have my first set of parents. They message me and reach out all the time. They send me pictures and updates on how she’s doing. So it makes me happy to see success, family building, and families that got exactly what they were looking for. They’re happy, and that makes me happy. It’s that simple. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, my God, how can you see a child that you birth out there with somebody else?’ It’s like, one, this is not my baby that I delivered because genetically, it’s not connected to me. And two, this is the whole reason that I do surrogacy. In order to see the parent with their children thriving. It makes the whole journey worthwhile for me on delivery day when I get to see as soon as I push that baby out, she gets snatched up into that mom’s and dad’s arm to do skin-to-skin.

Blunt has since ended her gestational carrier journey, having been diagnosed at 33 weeks with Stage 3 Breast Cancer in January of this year.

“I’ve been very blessed, I have to say. Even through the battles of it, I have a newfound respect for what cancer treatment looks like, and it kind of hit me for a whirlwind all at once. I was diagnosed while pregnant in my last surrogacy journey and started treatment literally five days after I delivered the baby,” she said.

That diagnosis just added more fire to Blunt’s mission to empower and help women. She is now focused also on helping women through their breast cancer awareness, as well as continuing to do her surrogacy work.

“I really feel like I’m on a new journey now to be able to show people and showcase my understanding and what I’ve grown to know through breast cancer treatment. I want to help support other women that are going through this, not only to bring knowledge about getting tested and doing your selfbreast exams but to be positive as well,” Blunt said. “Now I’ll just focus on helping other families, supporting them and bringing life through other gestational carriers, and making sure that they have the support that they need.”

Blunt said that she would encourage anyone interested in being a surrogate or the surrogacy process to do their research.

“Don’t just believe what you hear out there or just what you read online. Do your research. Connect with an agency that is knowledgeable and well-versed in what surrogacy should look like. If you’re interested, even if you’re not thinking about being a gestational carrier yourself or an intended parent, get the information so that way you’re not judgmental of other people that have decided to become gestational carriers.”

Most importantly Blunt wants parents to continue to believe in miracles.

“I want you to continue to believe that miracles happen every day one way or the other. You just have to believe and do the work. So don’t give up on yourself. Don’t just sit there. If you have a desire to want to be a parent, contact an agency, contact an IVF clinic, and get the information to start your journey. I know for a lot of people, finances are an issue that holds a lot of families back from creating their families. But there are options out there. So you just got to make sure that you’re talking to the right people that are leading you in the right direction.” !

CHANEL DAVIS is the current editor of YES! Weekly and graduated from N.C. A&T S.U. in 2011 with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. She’s worked at daily and weekly newspapers in the Triad region.