USF IVF - French Connection
Saundra Saint Laurent opens the gift wrapped box and the second she sees the red, white and blue it feels as if the whole room erupts with joy. “Ah, so bu-tea-ful!” – C’est si beau! – the words dripping with an unmistakable and wonderfully French accent. “Le Américain Sweetheart” reads Saundra aloud, her fingers touching the words embroidered on the baby bib. “Ah yes! That is what she is.”
The ‘American Sweetheart’ is 12 day old Leonie Saint Laurent. Weighing in at 7 pounds and 9 ounces, she is their miracle baby.
Thirty-three year old Saundra and 37 year old Brice Saint Laurent thought they might never be able to have more children. Thanks to a gestational carrier in Tampa and the team at USF IVF,
4 1/2 year old Margot Saint Laurent is now a grande soeur – a big sister.
Devastating complications during childbirth in 2006 left Saundra without a uterus. It was then, during the birth of their second child, Paul, that the baby died and Saundra was near death. Doctors would have to remove her uterus to save her. “I was very afraid of dying this night,” she says. “On the morning after, I felt that if I was still here, it was for me to do something good with my life.”
Q: That God had a plan for you?
A: “Yes, otherwise He would have take me.”
But on this sunny day in May, far from their hometown in Tarbes, France that sorrow is forgotten. The heartbreak is eclipsed by the presence of Baby Leonie now sleeping comfortably in Saundra’s arms.
Pointing to the new dress embroidered with stars and stripes, Nurse Joy Taylor says “A gift from all of us.” “Something Leonie can wear on the airplane ride home!” interjects Nurse Christine Kilfoyl, program manager of USF IVF. Saundra and Brice smile at the doctors and nurses, Saundra’s eyes welling up with tears. The couple reaches for words in English and French trying to communicate their overwhelming gratitude on this, their last visit with the USF IVF team before heading home to France. “Oh my gosh…LOVE her,” says Dr. Shayne Plosker, Division Chief of USF IVF, “Have a good life,” he says, gazing at baby Leonie, still asleep.
“I still remember the transfer,” says Kilfoyl, “We had Saundra on the phone.” “What do you mean?” I ask and with that the group launches down memory lane. At the gestational carrier’s request, we are identifying her only as “Dawn”.
“For the frozen transfer, Saundra was not here. She was in France,” explains Kilfoyl. “So the day of the transfer, Dawn was here with her husband, Dr. (David) Keefe and myself. We had Saundra on the phone – it was the phone on the wall. We’re trying to reach it…and of course the important part was to make the transfer, but we wanted to include her. We had the call and we were saying to her ‘This is what is happening now,’ remembers Kilfoyl in vivid detail. “People on the fourth floor of Tampa General (hospital) were looking at us thinking ‘This is too weird!'” Then, mimicking her own response to onlookers that day, Kilfoyl whispers “The parents are in France!”
Attitudes changed – every time.
Inter-Continental Pregnancy…
Nurse Taylor fast forwards in a flash – “Then, when the gestational carrier came in for the first ultrasound, we also had the Saint Laurents on the phone,” says Taylor, “Saundra heard the heart beat over the phone, right along with us!” “Yes…and I cried,” says Saundra. “It was sooooo beautiful! We were all crying!” interjects Taylor.
The inter-continental pregnancy is the stuff that movies are made of. The child is biologically Saundra’s and Brice’s, but carried, for 9 months, in the uterus of a Tampa mom they connected with online.
“The whole thing was incredible because it was a frozen embryo,” says Saundra.
“I didn’t believe that it would work so when I had the results of the first lab test…It was Christine (Kilfoyl) on the telephone… I was in an airport…just before taking the plane. It was magic to know that! She (Leonie) had only a 20 per cent chance of being there (inside the womb) and here she is today.”
“My husband and I have five children,” explains Leonie’s gestational carrier. “I love being pregnant and I love children. I wanted to help someone else who can’t have children.”
The French couple and the gestational carrier connected via a website run by an advocacy organization for surrogacy. The women both admit to an instant connection. Dawn, not a serial surrogate for hire, is an appraiser in the Tampa Bay area. At age 39, she says she felt a calling to help someone else have a child and found that ‘someone else’ in Saundra, living all the way in France near the border with Spain.
Why USF IVF?
“The beginning of our story is that we met each other and knew that it was going to be in Tampa because this is where Dawn lives,” says Saundra. They landed on USF IVF after a European website on surrogacy told them about Dr. David Keefe, Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the USF College of Medicine and an internationally renown researcher in fertility.
“It was amazing. I sent him (Keefe) an email on a Saturday and about 3 hours later, I had an answer. ‘Okay, I am ready…I work with you…no problem’ recalls Saundra. “He wrote ‘Call my secretary on Monday and we give you appointment.’ I called,” says Saundra, “and 15 days later, we were here for the appointment.”
Q: You came all the way from France for that one appointment?
A: “Yes, yes. Dr. Keefe explained to us…for very long time… during one hour and thirty minutes all the process…we felt his interest. We felt comfortable here and were sure that one day this would work,” she says.
Saundra’s eggs and Brice’s sperm were extracted and fertilized in vitro thanks to the expertise of Dr. Ying Ying, Director of the USF IVF laboratory. “We did three cycles- two fresh cycles and one frozen cycle,” says Dr. Ying. That first attempt resulted in a pregnancy but early miscarriage, followed by a second unsuccessful attempt. For the third and final try, it was Dr. Ying’s work under the microscope that helped make that miracle happen for the Saint Laurents. “In the first fresh cycle, we recovered nine eggs, eight of them were normally fertilized and two embryos were transferred on day 3…the other six embryos were cultured for three more days, and one of them developed to blastocyst and frozen… and is the baby Leonie,” explains Ying.
USF IVF statistics…..
For the USF IVF team this is not the first time a patient case involves surrogacy. Since the start of the program in September 2006, the team has had seven patients who have used gestational carriers, including another French couple. “The program also works with couples from Canada where it is illegal to pay donors,” says Plosker, himself Canadian-born. Canada’s law makes it virtually impossible for anyone without a willing family member or friend to use a gestational carrier.
Looking at the overall numbers for USF IVF, not just cases involving gestational cases, USF IVF has done a total of 134 retrievals and 110 transfers. Sixty-one resulted in pregnancies – a 55% success rate. Pregnancies from frozen embryo transfers, as in the case of baby Leonie, pose the most difficulties for IVF experts nationwide. Based in Tampa, Florida, USF IVF stands well above the national average. Its overall clinical pregnancy rate from embryo transfers stands at 43%. The national average is only 27%.
All that modern science and statistical data, while appreciated by the Saint Laurents, remain second to the humanity of the folks involved. “For me, she is even more than a sister,” says Saundra of her gestational carrier. “..Dawn is like…me, only on the other side of the ocean Atlantic,” Saundra explains, reaching over to touch Dawn, standing by her side, visibly moved.
“I was very proud to be able to say we helped,” says Kilfoyl of the entire experience. “We live in a great county!”
French laws on surrogacy…
For the Saint Laurents, Leonie is only the beginning of their efforts in surrogacy. Earlier this year, Saundra, a stay at home mom, testified before members of the French parliament. She and husband Brice, a grocery story chain executive, are actively involved with the Maia Association, an advocacy group working to repeal the 1991 French law banning surrogacy – this summer their group meeting with the Health Advisor to French President Nicholas Sarkozy.
“In France my husband is considered Leonie’s father. Biological paternity is recognized but not the maternity….In France maternity is decided when you deliver the baby,” says Saundra, her voice starting to break. “In France, I am not considered her mother. I am nothing to her.”
According to French law, Leonie is considered an American and, as such, will require a U.S. passport to remain in France with her parents. The child’s U.S. passport will have to be renewed every five years until Leonie turns 18 years old and can legally apply for French citizenship herself. Asked how she feels about that, Saundra exclaims “I am proud that Leonie is considered Américain becauze France – my own country – was not very nice to me.”
“Good bye…Au revoir… Merci… Dr. Ying, you are perfect baby maker,” says Saundra as she bids farewell. And to the delight of everyone, baby Leonie begins to wake up as the adults move towards the door for their parting hugs.
Leonie stretches…slowly opens one eye…then back to sleep.
Oui. Un Bien-aimé américain – an American Sweetheart.
Story by Lissette Campos, USF Health Communications
Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Media Center
Other Links…
