Yvette & Patrick

Medical Information:

General Health: Very good health.

Fertility Information: We have 4 PGT-A tested embryos ready for the next step. We used a known egg donor to help us create our embryos.

Fertility Clinic: VRC- Victory Reproductive Care, Windsor, ON

Why are you looking for a Surrogate?

Yvette had a severe bacterial infection with sepsis which damaged her uterus. We lost our baby boy at that moment when Yvette was 30 weeks pregnant. After years of fertility treatment and medical intervention, we never got pregnant again. We are not ready to let go of our biggest dream: a family of our own. We hope that someone is willing to help us make this dream come true.

Tell us about your family & loved ones.

The people who know about our journey are all supportive. Our family, friends and close co-workers understand that this is our final option in making our dream come true. We are open about the journey to people who are close to us. Our parents and siblings fully support us in our journey to become parents. Our nieces and nephews are also aware of our journey and cannot wait to have a new cousin to love.

Would you like to attend appointments with your Surrogate?

Yes, although we don’t live nearby we would like to attend the 20 week ultrasound if we are able. We would love to be a part of appointments via video where possible.

What are your thoughts on termination of a pregnancy due to genetic abnormalities or complications related to the pregnancy?

We will not make this decision lightly and will seek advice from the medical practitioner. The main objective for us is quality of life. We think a child should be able to have a good life. Severe (or multiple) disabilities could be a reason to terminate.

If the Surrogate becomes pregnant with multiples, how would you feel? How do you feel about the possibility of selective reduction being recommended due to a multiple pregnancy?

Although we are dreaming of a family of our own, we do understand that multiples are a higher risk for the pregnancy and the health of the Surrogate. We never want the life of the Surrogate to be at risk. In this case with multiples, we would seek advice from the medical team. We would be more than happy to welcome multiples, but if selective reduction is needed then we would follow that advice,

Are you vaccinated for Covid-19? Do you have a preference for a Surrogate to have been vaccinated for Covid-19?

What kind of relationship do you want to have with your Surrogate during the pregnancy?

We hope that we can have a warm and open relationship with regular contact between us, the Surrogate and her family. We hope that she is willing to include us in the pregnancy, especially since we are not close by geographically. It is not only about the pregnancy but also about the Surrogate’s life and her family, this relationship is so much more than the surrogacy journey alone and we can’t wait to be a part of it!

Do you want to be in the delivery room when your child is born?

Yes. The most important thing is what the Surrogate wishes. If she wishes to do the birthing without us in the room, then that is okay.

What kind of relationship do you hope to have with your Surrogate after the birth of your child?

We hope that we can continue our relationship. We would love to spend some time with her and the baby before heading back home to the Netherlands.

Would you be open to a home birth?

In the Netherlands home birth is quite common. We are absolutely fine with a home birth, as long as it is nearby a hospital with all the facilities for a new born. 

Are you open to midwifery care?

In our country it is normal that a midwife is supporting the pregnant woman and she is medically trained to help the birth.

Would you like your Surrogate to provide breastmilk?

We would appreciate if the surrogate would consider this, at least for the start of the baby's life. 

What will you tell the child about the Surrogate, and the circumstances of their birth? If your child asks to meet the Surrogate, how will you feel?

We will explain that a nice woman in Canada helped us by sharing her belly so that the child could be a part of our family, because my belly is broken. We are not going to hide this because we are proud of the journey. We are also very grateful of the woman who is giving us the biggest gift in life. So if the child wants to know the story, he/she will get the full story. We will be feel very proud if the child asks to meet the Surrogate. We will be supportive of the child meeting the Surrogate if the Surrogate is agreeable.

If the transfer is unsuccessful, will you want to try again? If so, how soon after?

Yes, we will follow the advice of our fertility clinic and it all depends on the Surrogate as well.

If this surrogacy journey is successful, would you want to complete a sibling journey? What do you envision that looking like? (timeline, same Surrogate etc.)

At this point, we will be happy to have one child after 10 years of trying.

What are your plans for childcare once the child is born?

When the child is born, we will be in Canada for a few weeks before we are able to travel back home. Once we are home, we have enough days off work to be together for at least 10-14 weeks as a new family of 3. When we go back to work, we have childcare just like any other parents in our country, but we will be spending as much time with the baby as possible. Our employers are very supportive so that won’t be an issue.

What does a typical weekend look like for you?

We love to slow down in the weekend, take our time with breakfast. We love long walks with the dog, taking a break at a patio. We love to have nice dinners with friends, at home or outdoors. We also regularly spend time with our little nieces and nephew, taking them to the zoo or playground. Of course if possible, with sleepovers. It all depends on how busy our weekend is because we can also have a more relaxing weekend working in our garden (and enjoying the end result of that hard work), watching a series on Netflix or exploring a new town. The main theme of our weekends is spending time together and with the people we love.

What are some of your interests/ activities?

We love to take walks with our dog, spending time with family and friends but we also love a night out in the theatre. Yvette loves to cook and try new recipes, whereas Patrick love to build new Halloween props (and he’s pretty good at it, if you ask the children in our neighborhood!) We spend time in our garden, not only to enjoy all the beauty of it, but it needs work as well. Now and then we take our nieces and nephew for a day out, to the zoo or a fun park. We both love the amusement park ‘Efteling’ and we make a visit whenever we can. We love to binge a good series on Netflix (which costs us some sleep at night because we often do ‘just one more episode’.)

“Our love story is really special. We fell for each other when we each got our own houses, we were practically neighbors! Since Yvette is not very handy, she needed someone to help her with a few things in her new home. There was Patrick, the helpful neighbor. Patrick had just moved to town and wasn’t familiar with the area, which happens to be Yvette’s hometown. So, she showed him around, he helped with her home repairs and one thing led to another. From that day on we were together and still going strong. Fun fact: Yvette’s parents met each other and fell in love on the exact same street! Yvette’s grandparents owned a small grocery shop and her mother applied for a job there. Who would have thought that we would meet each other on the exact same street!”