“I am the proud mother of a daughter born through surrogacy. The road to getting to the point where I can call myself ‘mom’ has not been an easy one. But every day when I wake up at the crack of dawn and in the dark trip over a never ending line of cars, dolls and building bricks and I am (for the most part!) very grateful. The journey to this point has seen extreme lows of thinking it will never happen for us, the losses of babies we have privately named but whose names will never be uttered and the hope that keeps you going.
When we were eventually blessed with our own small family unit which we had craved for so long, the practicalities of navigating the life admin began. First on the list, figuring out what entitlements I had as a mother, albeit a mother through different circumstances. I was in a very lucky position that my workplace, SSE, afforded me the same supports as any other mother through its various HR policies.
Having policies that acknowledge all of the ways in which families are formed, including adoptive leave and leave for fertility treatment and recognising the space needed for pregnancy and child loss are all so important in ensuring that employees are identified for what they are; individuals, with their own individual familial journeys.”
