Episode 171 – Surrogate Retreat Reflections

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you

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Welcome to Surrogacy Australia’s podcast series. I’m your host Anna McKie. Thank you for sharing your time to listen to this episode. These recordings are from the regular one hour free webinars that I run, which I invite you to attend if you haven’t already. They take you through how surrogacy works in Australia, including how to find a surrogate or intended parents, that’s IPs. There are opportunities to ask questions and you hear from a co-host each time about their own journey.

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This episode recorded in October, 2026 is slightly different to our standard webinar series as it involved three sets of surrogate co-hosts, Laura, Chelsea and Katie, who all attended the surrogate retreat at Ratho Farm in Bothwell and our north of Hobart in September, 2026. Some of the questions and topics that we discussed in this episode include, do I need to know other surrogates before attending a retreat? Is it clicky? Will everyone else know each other?

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I’m looking to be a surrogate but don’t have IPs. Is it worth me attending? Why might IPs encourage and support their surrogate to attend a retreat? And what were the main things each woman took away with her from the retreat? Please share this episode in any groups you’re in or privately with any surrogates and IPs. If you find this episode helpful, please send me a message to let me know. Anyone is welcome to contact me via email, SASS at surrogacyaustralia.org

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or Facebook Messenger, Anna McKie with a black and white profile pic. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it with three of the 18 surrogates that attended the retreat. It was so healing and cathartic and uplifting and cup filling. It’s almost hard to put into words the value that I’ve come away with from that retreat. And it stayed with me into my life in the week’s post-retreat. And I’m sure most of the other surrogates feel the same. So please come along.

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Consider it, be brave and reach out and ask me any questions about that if you want to. Enjoy the episode. We’ve got myself and three wonderful surrogates joining me here. Two and a half weeks ago, we were all, 18 of us in total, in Tasmania for the surrogates retreat. And what a weekend it was. Most of us old strangers from all parts of Australia came together and to spend three nights, four days sort of.

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thing together. And I just thought it might be interesting while it’s still fresh in our minds and we’re all a bit loved up, know, missing each other and had such a wonderful time together to just sort of recap that so that this could also become a recording and a resource for people in the future when we do another retreat and people are wondering, oh, should I come to the retreat or not? Is it worth it? Is it clicky? What do people get out of it? So thank you ladies for joining us. Are you all still feeling that thinking back to the retreat and having moments come flooding back? I’m seeing the smiles on your faces there. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I know.

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We’ve still got our Facebook group as well. And you know, there’s still posts going in there, which has been really lovely. So, you know, keeping the magic alive. Yeah. I had been to a retreat when I sort of helped organize it in 2021 when we moved from just being a couple of hour sessions at a conference to doing a full weekend. I haven’t been to a weekend one since. Chelsea, were you there at the Hobart one, two years ago? Yeah, I’m from Launceston. So I had no excuse but to come. I just could not believe how many people came to Tassie.

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and like made a real trip out of it. Yeah, like we went to the Mona Art Gallery in Hobart. We did a few little like road trips. People went up to the snow when they were from Brisbane and they’d never seen the snow before. And yes, it was snowing in September. Yeah, but then this retreat had like all different experiences again.

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Yeah, it was really well put together with all the variety of things that you could do or not do and people could just choose if they wanted to opt in or not basically.

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Yeah, yes, I guess as a summary there we we did have a variety of activities We were sort of all sharing meals together and then SJ had put together a bit of a I’m not sure if agenda is the right word But you know a bit of a running sheet of activities and get to know each other as just as women but then getting to know each other as surrogates as well as a lunch out at Well, because the the retreat was run by one of the surrogates brothers. It was actually the family homestead She grew up in wasn’t it Molly and yeah, I thought I farm if you’re ever in Tazzy go say it Ratho Farm is amazing. Absolutely

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well. Yes and then we had a lunch at the local distillery and then some chats in the afternoon, fun around the fire on the the Saturday evening. If you if you know you know.

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And then Sunday, Laura led us in some breath work in the morning, which ended, which is quite a peaceful and ended up being an emotional session for a lot of people I found. And then the craft of noon and, and yeah, so you’re right. People could attend all or some of them if they needed a break. And so it felt like a real holiday, particularly for most of us have kids. And so to carve that time out and to have three nights away is quite a significant.

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and it felt like a real holiday there. So I guess I might go around to each of you is that, you know, some people might be thinking, you know, oh, I don’t necessarily know that many people in person, you know, why would I come to the retreat? Chelsea, is there something that you could say to people for that? I would say that’s exactly why you do come. And whether you’re someone who is comfortable in a big group, you know, with a lot going on, a lot of people chatting and conversations going everywhere, or whether you’re more like a one-on-one discussion type of person.

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Like there’s all, you can always find someone to talk about different topics or just go for a walk or like I just sat out on the veranda in the sun for like hours that weekend and it was awesome. So people would just come and sit and chat and then there was organized discussions as well. So.

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It really did have a good mix. It’s the kind of thing I wish I had have done before being a surrogate. Interesting. could have I could have literally asked anybody anything and had all of that wealth of knowledge there like to tap into like the challenges as well as the joys. Actually expand on that a little bit more as we were saying off air beforehand that it would be so valuable we think for surrogates at the beginning. Surrogates might often go well I haven’t been a surrogate so I can’t go on the surrogate retreat because I’ve not birthed a surrogate baby or I’m not even pregnant but do we all feel that it would be

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for people at the beginning. mean, Katie, you’ve done one journey and you’re planning another one. Was that helpful for you to come again? Like to come while you’re thinking about a second journey? Yeah, I, yeah.

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I really agree. think that if I had have gone before my first journey, I would have learned a whole lot that I obviously learned during my first journey, but would have been much more handy to know at the start things to think about, you know, as you say, the good, the bad. All of it would have been really handy to sort of have that little bit more of a information. Cause for me, I’m lived down in Hobart, so other end of the state to Chelsea, but I’d never met any other surrogates. I was in the surrogate group, but often didn’t.

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feel like I could reach out because I’d never really met these people. Yeah, we literally met at the retreat like two and a half weeks ago. Even though everyone’s always amazing and like the Facebook groups and stuff, was like, I haven’t actually met these people. So how much can I reach out with personal issues for support when I’ve not really met them? Whereas now I’m like, oh, okay, I feel like I’ve got this world of people behind me and this big village behind me of people that if I went again, I’ve got all this support in place and people I can speak to who have had.

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Similar journeys. Yeah, it’s like a whole new little network. And so did you each come away going if you were to do it again or if you were brand new, you would now have this almost a team of mentors of people that you could call on and chat to privately because you’ve now met them in person? Yeah. Laura, did you want to add anything to that? Yeah, 100%. I’d only met, I think, three of you in person. I’ve met you before and I’ve met

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you know, a couple of other people at the Surrogacy Gala just after I’d had Sura Baby, I think it was about six weeks after I gave birth, that I, you know, got to meet some of you in person. I think going there, and I was in two minds just before whether to come along or not. And I’m glad I did come because it’s hard to even put into words what I got from it, to be honest, because it was just, you know, we’re all so different, you know, in some of those photos, you look at them and go, wow, we are all so

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different in terms of who we are as people and what we do and, you know, in normal life. But yet we all have this amazing thing that we’ve done in common. And so it’s really beautiful to share all the different experiences and some of the things that you did on the Saturday, Anna, you know, with us and, you know, we lined up and, you know, who’s the one that really got me actually the most, I think, was when we lined up in order of how old we were when we birthed. Because I had this picture in my head that most surrogates were in their forties, you know,

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having had their family. And when we did that, went, Oh, I’m actually quite old for a surrogate. Because there was so many younger, which did surprise me. You know, that was fascinating, like looking at some of the, I guess, statistics of, you know, it was only 18 of us there, but it was fascinating. And, you know, obviously that then triggers other conversations and being able to share with others, some of the experiences that we’ve had and how they were different. It was just good to be among other people that have had this

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experience because it is so unique. Some of the people commented before we actually met about, the thing that is normally the interesting thing about me isn’t actually interesting anymore. Everyone share an interesting fact. It’s like all 18 of us have the same one.

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Good point. Yes, that’s the normaliser. That’s why you’re here. I think that the piece that you mentioned at the start in terms of, you know, is it clicky? Having not met many people before, you don’t really know how it’s going to be when you rock up there, but it really wasn’t. Like everyone was so open and we talked before about there’s just no judgement. All the different decisions that were made during each of the journeys, there really was no judgement in how, you know, the choices that people made and how the journeys have gone.

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it was just sharing every single person there I really enjoyed connecting with. In some of those sessions where we did break into different groups, know, some of us did an interview and then others went on the golf course and played golf and some went off to read or really chilled, you know, relaxed because everyone got what they needed. But that also allowed for discussions one-on-one with people or in a smaller group and you know, it’s just really lovely how it unfolds. We were talking about, you know, would Sarah get come along if she had not actually met anybody else in person?

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I mean Chelsea you had met others and you’d done your journey but I Katie you came along and hadn’t ever met somebody in person and I suppose particularly if you’re at the beginning I’m now starting to think about the IPs that are listening to this thinking about oh is that something that it’s worth our surrogate going to I wonder if they could even help have that conversation with her and facilitate that in some ways if she needs a bit of help getting there because I wonder if it might end up helping their whole team.

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because of the things that she’s going to learn on that surrogacy retreat, surrogate retreat, that she might bring back to the team conversations. I wonder if there was anything that springs to mind there that could help teams. I’m not sure. hadn’t planned that question. So that was just me. There was quite a bit involved in all of that I just said there.

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good for the surrogate to make those connections. Depending on teams, like for me, I’d never met another surrogate. And as I said, I wasn’t really confident in reaching out. It did sometimes in a way feel isolating because even though you had people to talk to, for me, it was no one that’s actually done that. It’s really hard to talk to somebody about how you’re feeling as a surrogate to someone that’s never actually been a surrogate because sometimes you don’t know how to explain the emotions or the feelings. Or if you could, I don’t know if you’re having a rough time and then sometimes you just get caught

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back like you chose to do this or whatever it might be. Whereas talking to another surrogate gives you a whole different feeling of support. And as much as, you know, people think, you know, you’ve got your intended parents and things and you do, and that’s great. And it can still be an amazing relationship, but it doesn’t mean the surrogate might not need support other than the intended parents. Cause people are on two different types of journeys. I mean, you’re all on the same journey to the same end goal, but it is almost two different paths.

12:16
I guess reflecting on it as well now having listened to everyone’s journey and they’re so different. One thing that I would think of now in hindsight, like as an IP or a surrogate is like as a team to have a conversation about what does keeping in touch afterwards mean to you? Because what one person thinks keeping in touch as family, friends, whatever that might be just like your other family friends that you might see once a year. Whereas to someone else, that means

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you might see, you know, it’d be expecting to see them once a month really knowing what’s going on in each other’s lives on an ongoing basis. So I guess from coming to the retreat, just, everyone’s situation is completely different and their relationships as a team are completely different. And so like you really do see like the full, you know, spectrum of what contact and communication and ongoing relationships look like. It’s very different. I,

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was not expecting to see that much of a range, I suppose. Yeah, for context, I would say, I think there was around four out of the 18 where the relationship has dissolved post-birth and they’re not really in contact with their IPs anymore. And so that was, it was hard for those women supporting them through that, but being there to hold that emotion with them. And I sometimes find.

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surrogacy it’s that what we do is sometimes fighting against mother nature in terms of you know handing over this this baby we want to do it we know we can do it that’s not the issue but sometimes our body still needs the cuddles or the contact to put our body at ease our heart and our head and our heart don’t want the babies our brains don’t and so sort of what you’re saying there Chelsea about in terms of almost having it really planned as a team what that contact looks like in the first week or two six weeks first three months and also then what to do if it changes or if there’s conflict um and

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maybe having plans of having a counseling session or something like that. Relationships are tricky, right?

14:12
even for all of our teams that changed during it. I think that’s some good advice there Chelsea, what you could take away from that, you know, if we were sort of to go again type of thing. think it’s hugely valuable for the IPs as well for the surrogates to come along because I think like, you know, like Katie mentioned, I saw a comment pop up from Danny about validation and all of that as well. But I think it is like Katie said, it’s a different relationship, you know, and some of us are single or solo mums as well.

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have that support from our side going through that journey and so for

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Having, knowing that there’s this, I’ve got my little thing that we made at the time with this picture of this tribe of women and behind us, I think is also useful for the IPs because they know there’s someone for them to turn to, you know, because as much as they want to understand, they can’t really understand it fully from our perspective. And so I think it’s really helpful for everyone involved in the team for the surrogates to come along and just know that there’s other people, you know, and being able to reach out.

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and have that because it is different to put in a post in a group. Even though it’s a surrogate’s clothes group, it’s still when I needed some support, I didn’t post. And there was only one surrogate.

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that I did speak to about it. You know, it really does open up so much in terms of support. You know, it’s a tough journey from everyone’s perspective. There’s always going to be bumps along the road. And so I think it’s really supportive for all sides of that. think especially close to birth, like where I mentioned that you’re sort of on different journeys, that people’s emotions can be in different spots where you might be really, really nervous because you know you’re about to give birth. You know, you’re about to go through this massive hormonal change. You know that all of this stuff’s about to happen, but your IPs are really

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excited because they’re a baby, you’ll go over here going, my god, oh my god, oh my god, this is really terrifying, this is horrible, what’s going to happen?

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I’m really nervous and they’re like, Oh my God, we’re having a baby. It’s very different. Whereas you don’t want to be like, I’m going to rain on your parade by being really nervous about what’s about to happen when they’re super excited. But then being super excited can almost take away from your fear, I guess, of the unknown. You know, am I going to be okay handing this baby over all the thoughts that you might have pre birth? Having that surrogate community. You’ve got the women that you can talk to about it. Definitely. It’s making me go, somebody should run a retreat for IPs that because we and.

16:36
As Laura is describing, there’s this image that I got a group of surrogates to do a few years ago and it’s sort of a pyramid. We’re all on our knees and it’s like one at the front, there you go, she’s holding up to the screen there, and it’s as though there’s this group of women behind us, you know, supporting us, even though we’re one person doing our one journey, but you feel like you’ve got this village and tribe behind you. I think it’s just as important for the IPs to have that.

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And they’ll only get that by making their own connections and finding other people to then talk about, okay, we’re heading into birth, sort of what you’re saying, Katie, and we’re excited, but we want to make sure our Sarah gets cared for and by finding other people to talk to and share experiences. was oftentimes where my IPs would be like, how do I support you? And sometimes I didn’t know either. And I’m like, well, I don’t know what I need. And it had also begun on the flip side yet for them to have people to talk to and say, Hey,

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what something we might be able to do in this point or anything along those lines. Cause as I said, it’s two wildly different journeys that it is hard to think of it from the other foot. Sometimes is there any sort of one thing in particular then that you could say why it was worth each of you coming to the retreat? Does one thing spring to mind, Laura? For me, it was very healing, you know, to be with other women that had navigated what I had. Yeah. And the changes in the relationship. So yeah, I know for, for

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few of us it was was healing on a different level. So yeah that’s what I think I was most grateful for. Katie? Yeah the healing and I like Danielle’s validation. Yes, yes as Dani said in the chat there yeah. Chelsea and you’ve been to a couple now and you’ve been around the traps for a little while? Learning new skills and activities.

18:11
One of which is the box breathing. Thank you, Laura, which I have done since, which is awesome. And I think just taking a bit of time for yourself and like actually remembering what you’ve done. Like 2024 was not a long time ago, but I don’t think about it every day anymore. Um, that I had twins for someone else. It really brings back all the emotions and the memories. And then when you hear everyone else’s stories, like everyone’s just.

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so incredible what they’ve done and in their own ways. Yeah, I guess anyone who’s at any stage of their journey, even if they’ve had failed transfers and they’ve given up, it’s not worked, they’ve given it a go, all of that, come to the retreat, you are welcome.

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I’m just having this image of what it might be like if there were six extra surrogates there who were either looking for IPs or at the beginning of chats. I wonder how we might’ve been like, you know, like the big sisters, you know, the year 12s, you know, trying to take them under our wing. wonder, can you imagine?

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the chats, would anything have been different or it would have been really welcoming and we want to help and support you and lift you up. Do you think that’s how would have been? think so. I still felt that for the fact of considering a second journey that everyone was all supportive and yeah, I’ll never do it again after having twins, but I’m really happy to help anyone else who needs advice. Well, I think that that point that you mentioned Chelsea celebration, like that is, you know, that

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was really, yeah, that was really an important part of it for sure of the whole weekend, you know, celebrating each other and and your meditation as well. The Sunday Chelsea was was amazing too, especially for surrogates, you know, it was really moving. yeah. And Chelsea’s

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fitness girl in her own life and she led us on a walk, know, on a couple of the mornings there too. And I know there’s one surrogate attended that I’ve known for many years in the community and it still hasn’t worked for her. Do know what mean? And she’s had a couple of IPs, she’s had multiple trances, I’m sure you girls know who I’m referring to there. And I think for her coming, it was that sense of, I still haven’t been a surrogate, I’ve been around for years, you know, do I actually have a place, a seat at the table here at this retreat? I think the answer is absolutely yes. Yeah. And I think that was really important.

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terms of validation piece was no matter where people were on the journey and there was, know, it’s surprising how many people did want to go again. I was like, wow, you even, you know, some experiences hadn’t been that great and yet there was still an eagerness to go again, which is telling.

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you know, of what an honor it is. You know, I think for so many of us, it’s actually such a beautiful thing to be able to do for people. I wonder if any IPs at the beginning might feel like, if our surrogate goes to that, she’s then going to have like 18 women who are like going to be all on her side and will be like against us. No, we shouldn’t send her to that. What do you, what would you say to that? No, I think it’s just, you know, it just helps being better informed and better prepared, especially because it is, you know, when you are coming towards the birth, you know, you are.

21:13
But none of us, no matter how intentional you try and be, none of us actually know how it’s going to be once you’ve given birth and the hormones are going crazy. And I think, I don’t think there’s any surrogates, whether it’s commercial or not, that don’t worry about how it’s going to be in that fourth trimester. That’s really, I think, the part that most of us worry about. It’s not a them and us situation at all. It’s more just… to say that. It’s never a nation in fire at all. No, every single…

21:43
conversation was just about what can we do to support that like, we’re not going to start bashing on IPs or P’s. It was just a, what can we do to support moving forward rather than trash talking? Yeah, yeah. 100%.

21:57
It’s probably a good moment to say that, I know by the time we do this recording that it’ll be in the past, but next week I’m having a psychologist who’s also a psychotherapist on, Dr. Julian, and through following things on socials when I shared about how some relationships just dissolve post-birth, he’s an intended parent himself, a gay man doing surrogacy overseas, and we’re talking about fight or flight, conflict in surrogacy, and talking about how can we help teams so that the relationship doesn’t dissolve? How can people be aware of their conflict styles or, you

22:27
before going into any relationship, friendship, relationship, surroship, and therefore how can we understand each other a bit better so when conflict does arise because there’s always going to be rupture and repair, how can we help teams with that? So hopefully if people are listening to this in the future, know, check that episode out as well. All teams face conflict. think, like Chelsea, I’m sure even in your team, I you were strangers to start with, but there’s always bumps along the way, isn’t it? No matter

22:52
Even if your team is strong, you’re still going to have challenges. think it’s just logistics. We wish we could hang out more and like two hours apart, like living two hours apart seems like a world away sometimes. And it’s just like life logistics, keeping in touch matters, sending photos matters. Like my daughter, who’s nine, being on a video call with the twins, like just with them chatting, absolute rubbish together because they’re two. Like she is just having the time of my daughter’s having the time of her life chatting to them.

23:21
once every couple of months. Like that’s the things that are happening naturally that like I really appreciate and I do hope that that can continue in future and they can be friends growing up as well. Yeah and we learn that from each other don’t we that it’s the children of the surrogates that that’s they’re so close to our heart that if it doesn’t quite go to plan that hurts us if our kids don’t.

23:43
continue to be involved and if they’re missing the IPs and the contact. We make it all about us, but it’s actually the whole thing is all about the children. So like more conversations about that would be good too, I guess between teams. Do we have a kids retreat? I will send mine, honestly, take them for three days. We can put them in with those cows. They’ll have a great time. The chicken shed wasn’t that the oldest chicken coop and golf course?

24:12
Australian order. You can go to the distillery. That’s fine. Just down the road kids. Well to sum it up we’ll just go around to each of you if there’s anything that you want to say that we haven’t covered already or last bits of parting advice for the people listening. So Laura what springs to mind?

24:28
I don’t think I’ve got anything else to add actually. No, think. Go to the attendee. Be brave. Katie? Just do it. I mean, I lived in Hobart and I come up with about 37 different excuses as to why I shouldn’t go. I was pretty good working on that, but I’m beyond glad that I did. I think just do it. And you’re a single mom and two young kids. And so that’s a lot to organize and favors to call in. And so for all of us, you know, to navigate kids and travel and the cost and it is a lot, but I think to say you’re beyond glad and Laura said earlier,

24:58
don’t have the words to actually describe the impact that this retreat has had on me. That’s exactly how I feel. Yeah. Like there are no words to how different I felt coming back on the Monday than I went going on the Friday. Wildly different in myself. And I’m holding up my ribbons here that those are the retreat actually wrote some names on them. Oh, Laura’s got her ribbons. So you come to the retreat and learn about what we did with the ribbons on the last night there. And Chelsea, something that springs to mind or some bits of parting advice for people. I’m just not going to talk myself.

25:28
out of it like Katie said for the next one like just go all in there’s no question they’re to need to build more accommodation I think because there’ll be so many people wanting to come because everyone who came will go again and more. Two things that springs to mind and so some of us had single rooms we chose that some shared and so there was a variety of accommodation options they were sort of like mini little homesteads all from within you know a few meters of the big main one.

25:57
Chelsea, that’s really interesting for you to say that. You gave birth, you know, a couple of years ago, but you’re even saying that it doesn’t matter how far out you are from birth, sort of pausing in your life to carve time out to sit with other surrogates. It doesn’t matter how long ago you were a surrogate. Are you saying that it’s just, it’s nice to pause in life and reflect on that journey? Well, I guess it’s a big thing that you’ve done and it’s worth dedicating time to.

26:20
on an ongoing basis wherever you’re out in the journey. think not like, I’ve done that, forget about it onto the next thing. I’m moving house or I’ve got a new job or whatever. It’s not like that. It’s something that’s actually pretty life changing. So to give it the time and attention that it should have and then like adding on the community that I’ve now gained from it, I’ve never thought I would know so many awesome people. Well said. And I agree that

26:46
We know that group of people well now. And so now if we do chat online occasionally, we’ve already got that in-person connection and it feels, you fast track friendships basically, I feel that.

26:57
Megan’s just typed in one question. Do the retreats happen elsewhere in Australia? Potentially yes and over the years as we’ve sort of built them up to be that the format that they are, yes they have been shared around. It just boils down to who has the capacity to organize it and it’s because Molly the surrogate, her brother, owns this Ratho farm and so the discount that we got in comparison when we looked into organizing in other places, it was significant savings that we all got there. So SJ and I, think, you know, we’re to help organize another one. We might do them every two years and we quite

27:27
like the idea of doing it down in Tasmania again. Especially because we got the place to ourselves. We pretty much did. It feels like home when you’re there like everyone’s just really within 10 minutes you’re just relaxed on the couch and it’s not a commercial setup like a hotel vibe at all it’s a homestead.

27:48
You just can gather around the fire and talk and eat food whenever you want and make it like you literally just make yourself at home there. Yeah so we had access to like a little kitchen and people brought their own drinks or they could purchase them. They home cooked us food and did breakfast and things like that so there was food flexibility. Yeah there was a big main room that we were in large parts of the time but that could be for meals but also for games and craft and things like that and people were sitting around in their pajamas and ugg boots you know what mean and so that it just felt really relaxed and so it felt

28:18
like that weekend away as well as celebrating surrogacy I think. Yeah when your biggest decision of the day is to like change into your pajamas into active wear. What more could you want really? And is it too early is it 4 p.m. too early to go back to my pajamas? Yeah is it drink o’clock? I think the beautiful part about having it there as well was that it was Molly’s family. Yeah the history behind it all. So interesting.

28:43
She grew up there and then when we went to the other, the distillery, her other brother owned that and they were also aware of surrogacy and so positive about this amazing.

28:54
sister had done and all of us had done because they understood it. And so for me, that added another layer of family, which is ultimately what it’s all about. So I really did value that connection as well, which was nice. think it was a very homely feel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yes. And hearing the brothers say, you know, we know why you’re all here. We so proud of Molly and how she’s been a surrogate twice to hear brothers say they’re proud of their sister. Yeah. Yeah. I’d forgotten that detail, but that was really beautiful because they

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really did mean it you know and they really emphasized it you know each time so for me that really stood out as well. Well I think we’re pretty much done. We could talk for hours and just you know going into details and reminiscing there but I think we’ve got a good summary there of the retreat some of the details hopefully motivating people to consider coming along as Katie says in the chat there beautiful to listen to ladies so thank you and Lisa thank you for sharing that yeah it felt good it’s nice to see some of you again just like we were sitting around the fire together thank you girls.

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Thank you for joining me. If you’d like to see other recordings with photos, head over to our YouTube channel to watch other webinars. You can head to surrogacyaustralia.org for more information about surrogacy. Also check out our Zoom monthly catch-up sessions, which are a great way to connect with others in the surrogacy community. Attending a Zoom is scary the first time, but there’s only ever one first time. We have all been beginners at some stage.

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As we say, it takes a village to raise a child and in the case of surrogacy, it takes a village to make a child. So welcome to the village.