Surrogate mom declines payment

updated 8:00 p.m. ET May 5, 2005

PHOENIX - A woman who agreed to be a surrogate mother for a childless couple is pregnant with quintuplets, all boys, and she’s decided not to accept any money because of the expense the parents are facing.

Teresa Anderson, who has four children of her own, expected that being a surrogate for Luisa Gonzalez and her husband, Enrique Moreno, would be equally simple.

“But it’s really five times the swelling, five times the mood swings,” she told The Arizona Republic. “It’s very different. You’re a lot weaker and more vulnerable to the symptoms (of pregnancy). My uterus is huge, just huge.”

She is in the 31st week of her pregnancy.

“Basically at this point everything is uncomfortable. They are just very heavy,” she said Wednesday on NBC’s “Today.” “My back is strained. It’s hard to walk. It’s hard to bend down, bend over because you always have to do that. Breathing is even a problem at this point.”

Doing 'incredibly well'
Five embryos were implanted to increase the chance that one would result in a successful pregnancy, she and her obstetrician, Dr. John Elliott, said on “Today” and on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Doctors hope she can carry the fetuses 34 weeks before they are delivered by Caesarean section.

One fetus has a heart defect that will require immediate surgery, but other than that, “they’re doing actually incredibly well,” Elliott told the Republic. He said he had not found another instance of a surrogate mother carrying quintuplets.

Anderson, 25, and her husband, Gerard, initially thought they could earn $15,000 for carrying what they thought would be one child, but they’ve decided not to take any money.

“It was pretty easy decision, considering everything involved and how many children that they’re going to be responsible for now,” Anderson said on “Good Morning America.”

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