In 2005, a 20 plus year-old woman identified as only Fatumah was paid four million Uganda shillings to carry a pregnancy for another woman in Kampala (names withheld).  Fatumah delivered two health babies at a go and immediately handed the babies over to the woman who had paid her to nurse the babies.

The mothers hired to carry the pregnancies are not allowed to see the babies they produce. The women who carry pregnancies for other women are called surrogate mothers.

Dr. Sali, one of the prominent doctors in Kampala says that a surrogate mother is a woman who agrees on contract to bear a child for another woman who is childless. The surrogate mothers are usually prepared mentally and psychologically to give birth to other women’s children.

Most surrogate cases in Uganda are mostly registered at the Women’s International Hospital in Kampala.

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