Laurent, Theo & Leo

Medical Information:

General Health:

We are both very healthy, and our 4-year-old son helps us a lot to stay healthy!

Fertility Information:

Yes! We have 2 embryos created and they are both PGS tested (and they are very good) We used a known donor to create our embryos, we had a chance to meet her in Toronto!

Fertility Clinic:

Markham Fertility, Markham, ON

Why are you looking for a Surrogate?

We both wanted to become parents, long before we met. As in France access to parenthood for same sex couples is impossible, we chose surrogacy. We chose Canada because surrogacy is altruistic, safe, ethical and legally regulated there.

Tell us about your family & loved ones.

We already have a child (Leo) and our parents are very happy and they are very present for Leo! They are very excited to hopefully be grandparents a second time. Laurent is an only child, however Theo has two brothers and one sister. They are very happy for us and they support us. Our son Leo doesn't know yet that we are taking the steps to have a second child. At 4 years old we prefer to tell him when the baby will be announced. In any case, he says he wants to be a big brother! Our friends are very close to us, and support us in our choices!
In our work everyone is aware, and are very happy for us too.

Would you like to attend appointments with your Surrogate?

Yes we would like to, but living in France may make it more difficult. We will try to schedule a trip, or if that is not possible the we would love to attend virtually. We would like to attend the first ultrasound. We met Leo's Surrogate when she was 3 months pregnant, unfortunately we were unable to attend any appointments with her, but she was able to send us a recording of the appointment which was very appreciated.

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

We are in favour of terminating a pregnancy if the child's life is in danger or if there is a mental disability, such as trisomy 21 (down syndrome).
For physical malformations it depends on the severity of the disability. Something small like a missing finger would not be cause for termination but it would really depend on the situation.

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?

We would be happy with multiple births however our embryos have been tested, and the chances of multiples is very slim. However, if multiples did occur we would be overjoyed as long as it is safe for the Surrogate to carry them.

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

We are not vaccinated, but for us it doesn't matter if our the Surrogate is vaccinated or not.

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

We would like to have a friendly relationship of sharing like we had with our first Surrogate. We wrote to each other regularly, about once a week. We would like to have that again.

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

Yes, we would like to, but if our Surrogate doesn't want to, we understand. For Leo, Tricia wanted her husband to be present and we understood that very well.

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

After giving birth, we would like to keep this relationship. We still have a relationship with Leo's Surrogate mother, we send her regular news and photos, she and her husband intend to come and see us in France.

Would you be open to a home birth?

No, we prefer that the birth be supervised by doctors in the hospital.

Are you open to midwifery care?

We are unsure at this time and would like to discuss with the Surrogate what her wishes are.

Would you like your Surrogate to provide breastmilk?

Yes!! Tricia did it for Leo! However, if this is something she doesn't agree to, we understand.

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 would tell them everything! We have already started to explain it to Leo. That's why we chose a known donor because we want our child, our children, to know everything about their origins. And we want them to be able to meet the people (donor and surrogate) who helped give them life. we will be happy! And we are 100% ok!

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

For the moment we want to try with the two embryos we have, if the first one doesn't work we would like to start again as soon as possible, but it will obviously depend on the state of health of our Surrogate and the doctor's opinion.

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.)

For us, it's already our second child. We would have liked to continue with our first Surrogate (who agreed) but in the end unfortunately she wasn’t able to do another journey for medical reasons.

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

We are fortunate that our jobs complement each other so we can keep our children at home and we have our parents, and friends who also come to look after Leo and will help with a second child too.

What does a typical weekend look like for you?

Laurent: For me, I get to stay at home to rest for the week. I take care of Leo; we go to the swimming pool or to games. Otherwise there are many weekends that I work, I give concerts or I give singing workshops.
Theo: I often work on weekends but when I'm not working I take care of our son, our house and sometimes we go together to visit my family.

What are some of your interests/ activities?

Laurent: I'm lucky that my job is my passion, I make music every day!
Théo: I love tinkering around the house.
We both love to cook and go on holiday.
And of course we like to take care of our son! Our whole life is dedicated to his well-being!

Other fun facts:

Theo: I love pasta. (I'm Italian)
Laurent: I love patatoes
We cook a lot, we eat a lot of vegetables and our favorite vegetable is eggplant.

We both have origins (for Theo: Italian, for Laurentian, Spanish) and we have kept some (culinary) traditions that our families taught us; We also teach Leo a few words.

“We met on 17/03/2013, we were both coming out of complicated stories but we both had the same desire to have a child... then two would be an unexpected desire! For 11 years now, we have been living together, we share the same values, we do everything together and thanks to our jobs we meet a lot of people. We have families and friends who support us a lot. Today we are the happiest parents in the world, and we are aware of the incredible luck we have! Leo is the center of our lives! We would like to give him a little brother or sister. We know that he is going to be a very protective big brother.”