Woman Discovers That She's Pregnant & Due Just Three Weeks Before Her Surrogate — 'Our Family Is In A Pickle'
She never would have imagined she would be having children three weeks apart from one another.
@themoneymom / TikTok A woman has found herself in a strange predicament after opting to turn to surrogacy due to years of infertility. In a TikTok video, she explained that she was happy to receive the news in February that the embryo transfer was successful and that her surrogate had become pregnant.
However, there was just one issue that left her — and many TikTok users — scratching their heads.
The woman discovered that she was pregnant at the same time as her surrogate.
Jenna Herrera, who is expecting babies just three weeks apart from her surrogate, took to TikTok to share her concerns with viewers. “Since I thought it was a great idea to get pregnant at the same time my surrogate is pregnant, our family is in a pickle,” the mother said in the video.
Herrera revealed that she is due in September while her surrogate is due just three weeks after her. She is living in California while her surrogate is in Colombia. Herrera is unsure how she will make it to Colombia for the birth of her baby via surrogate since their due dates are so close together.
“The question is will we be able to have this baby, get a birth certificate, get a passport, and make our way to Colombia with this baby all in three weeks,” she says.
In the U.S., it typically takes four to eight weeks to receive a birth certificate copy in the mail, although, in some states, it can only take two to three days. To receive a U.S. passport, it usually takes around 10 to 13 weeks, or seven to nine weeks if one chooses to have it expedited. In some cases, a birth certificate is required for infants to travel by plane so their age can be confirmed. Passports are always required when flying out of the country.
Herrera is remaining optimistic either way. “There’s a chance it could happen, there’s a chance it could not,” she says. However, in the chance that it does not work out and she does not receive her baby’s birth certificate and passport on time, the mother is still unsure what her exact plan will be.
“Do I leave my newborn here in the United States without me? Do I stay here with my newborn and my husband goes to Colombia but then I miss the birth of our baby?” she wonders aloud. “Will it all work out just perfectly and I’m just causing myself unnecessary stress? Time will tell.”
Instead of offering their advice, many TikTok users asked Herrera why she used a surrogate if she was already pregnant.
In a follow-up video, Herrera explained the situation to clarify the minds of confused viewers. She called it “a complete lack of planning.”
According to the mother, she and her husband, who already have four children, wanted to expand their family. However, they encountered years of infertility and miscarriage and found it difficult to get pregnant on their own. They eventually decided to turn to surrogacy to have more children.
In November 2022, the couple’s surrogate in Colombia underwent an embryo transfer that unfortunately failed. Just two months later, Herrera was surprised to learn that she was pregnant.
Since they had already scheduled a second embryo transfer for their surrogate in February 2023, Herrera and her husband decided to go through with it, not considering what would happen if both their pregnancies stuck.
Fortunately, both pregnancies did stick and have been healthy, but now the family finds themselves in an unusual situation. “Here we are in the pickle I’ve been talking about,” Herrera said. “I’m having this baby in September and I need to be in Colombia in three to four weeks later to pick up the baby being born via surrogate.”
Herrera said that she would not fly to Colombia to have her baby, nor would she ask the surrogate to come to the U.S. to give birth, since both of them have other children and would have to remain in a foreign country for several weeks. Additionally, her surrogate is not a U.S. citizen, and getting her a visa would take too long.
Herrera also didn't want to send her husband alone to Colombia for the birth of their baby while she stayed back home with their newborn.
“While my husband is completely capable and competent, there is no way that I can imagine missing the birth of my son and the immediate skin-to-skin and nursing,” she shared.
As of right now, the plan is to take the family to Colombia, including the newborn baby, with the hope that he will receive his birth certificate and passport in time.
“We’ve already worked with our local passport agency and learned that if we go to Los Angeles, we can get a same-day passport,” Herrera explained.
As for the birth certificate, the mother has to hope and pray that it arrives on time. “Because we're doing a home birth, we don’t get the birth certificate right away. We have to make an appointment with Vital Records, which seems to be about two to three weeks out,” she says.
For now, Herrera shared that she is “not really too stressed” about the whole situation since she is “trusting God’s plan.”
“God perfectly orchestrated all this and the plan is just to trust him,” she said. “I’m not gonna have to leave my baby behind and I’m not gonna miss the birth of my baby in Colombia… it’s gonna all work out.”
And we hope it does!
Megan Quinn is a Staff Writer on the YourTango team for the Entertainment & News Department. She graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz with a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing.