Nollywood actress, Ini Edo has welcomed a baby girl. In an interview with Stella Dimoko Korkus, the actress revealed that she used a surrogate mother to carry and birth her daughter.
The actress who started her acting career started in 2003 with her debut in Thick Madam said, “I do have a daughter and I had her through surrogacy. The eggs are mine and so genetically, she’s my blood. I chose this path to fulfill my dream of becoming a mother.”
When asked about her baby’s father, the actress said, “I opted for a donor for me and my baby’s peace of mind. Another major reason I opted for a donor is because it scares me so much when I see banter and controversies between a mother and a father over a baby in public forums or when I see the man insisting he wants his child if things don’t work out between both parties.. For me it’s the fear of what that would mean for the child .Ideally, its marriage then children but we are not living in an ideal world”.
She earned a “Best Lead Actress” nomination at the 11th Africa Movie Academy Awards for her performance in the movie “While you slept” continued in the interview, “I am not someone who allows any situation to control me. I make lemonades out of lemons thrown my way and have no regrets.”
The Akwa Ibom state born actress said, Life itself is so fragile and short to be striving for perfection. I am well and capable of taking care of my own child as I’ve been taking care of myself .
“I wanted a child and thank God for the options of surrogacy and donors”, her statement reads in parts.
On the process of Surrogacy, she said the “process is quite expensive, and starts with the stimulation process ,egg retrieval and insemination on the chosen surrogate which in my case was all handled strictly by the hospital”.
On how she feels about being a mother, the actress said, “It is an awesome feeling and experience and as I watch my daughter grow every day, i am in awe of the miracles that God has sent my way and I am so thankful and grateful to be my daughters mother”.
According to Britannica, “a surrogate motherhood, practice in which a woman (the surrogate mother) bears a child for a couple unable to produce children in the usual way, usually because the wife is infertile or otherwise unable to undergo pregnancy. In so-called traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother is impregnated through artificial insemination with the sperm of the husband. In gestational surrogacy, the wife’s ova and the husband’s sperm are subjected to in vitro fertilization, and the resulting embryo is implanted in the surrogate mother. Normally, in either procedure, the surrogate gives up all parental rights, but this has been subject to legal challenge”.
