DES MOINES, Iowa — Heartland Surrogacy is addressing critical reproductive health care disparities within Iowa’s Hispanic community.
11 years ago the agency became Iowa's first surrogacy agency, acting as a liaison to connect women with surrogates.
Like all moms, co-founder Monica Villa loves her two kids: Lillia, 10, and Wes, 8.
“We were able to conceive and carry our pregnancies with very few complications,” Villa said.
She knows for other women, especially Latinas, giving birth isn’t so easy. In fact, Hispanic women are 70% more likely to experience infertility than white women, according to a Baylor College of Medicine study.
“We're realizing that not only is infertility much more common than we thought it was, but also that it does affect people of color disproportionately,” Villa said.
Villa, who was born in Mexico, started her service as a way to pair women with medical professionals and attorneys.
“There's so many moving parts,” Villa said. “You have your fertility clinic, the obstetric care, your attorneys, escrow, all of those details. We are able to connect them with the professionals that are experienced and knowledgeable in this.”
Villa said family is a big part of Latino culture and women are taught growing up to have their own kids later in life.
“It can be an issue of identity, that family is who you are and if that option is not available to you, there is a lot of grief there of not being able to fulfill that identity,” she said.
Heartland Surrogacy serves as an alternative avenue to having children for those, Latina or not, who can’t.
“This is something that's an option for people of all backgrounds,” Villa said. “We want to make sure that we're educating people on what surrogacy is.”
Heartland Surrogacy strives to implement inclusive policies. This includes making sure that marketing materials feature families of all races and sexual orientations.