Natalie is interviewed by BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour about the past and future of UK surrogacy 

January 2015 is a special month for UK surrogacy: it’s the 30th anniversary of the birth of baby Cotton, the first UK surrogacy baby, whose birth triggered the hasty passing of the UK’s laws on surrogacy.  

To mark the occasion, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour interviewed surrogate mother Kim Cotton and surrogacy expert Natalie, discussing how far we have come over the last 30 years, but how far we still have to go.  

Kim reflected movingly about her own experience and what she has learned from it.  Natalie talked about BB’s campaign for a better structure for surrogacy law in the UK, with contracts, pre-birth orders and more honesty around payments – and why this is so important in the light of rapidly growing surrogacy numbers.  

The consensus between both Kim and Natalie was that well-managed surrogacy (where there is a strong relationship between the surrogate and the intended parents) is a positive experience for all, but that our law has remained stuck in the 1980s and hasn’t caught up with the need to support such arrangements properly.  Reform is needed, and long overdue.

You can listen to the programme on BBC iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vqvbs