'I went to the bingo the night I gave birth to my first surrogate baby'.

Byline: By Sian Harris South Wales Echo 

Lisa Woodham fell pregnant with baby James, carried him for 36 weeks and gave birth to him when he made his early arrival - but not once did she think of him as her own.

'It was always their baby and never mine,' says Lisa, who was a surrogate for a couple who had been desperately trying for a baby for nine years.

'Even my children knew it was Melissa and Tom's baby and I was just keeping it safe for them.'

Pregnancy and labour with her own three children had been very straightforward and Lisa felt so good after giving birth to James, she went to bingo that night.

Lisa, 32, who has carried a second child, Lucy, for the same couple, insists she had thought about surrogacy since her late teens.

She said: 'My nan had lost two children and my aunt only had one. I knew so many people who could not have children. I wanted to help if I could. When I met my husband Terry when I was 23, I told him it was something I wanted to do.'

While pregnant with her own fourth child Dylan, Lisa, from Bridgend, watched a TV documentary about Britain's first surrogate mother and immediately contacted the BBC who put her in touch with organisation Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy (Cots).

Sadly, Lisa lost Dylan during pregnancy at eight-and-a-half months, but remained committed to helping others have children.

Over the next year, she had to be police checked, tested for HIV, hepatitis and several sexually transmitted diseases, as well as go through legal proceedings and counselling.

Lisa said: 'A counsellor meets you to make sure you are in the right frame of mind. They need to know you are ready and once you are pregnant, you won't change your mind.

'I had no idea how much it was going to involve, all I thought about was I wanted to help a family who did not have any children.'

After losing Dylan, Lisa and builder Terry, 33, had decided not to have any more children and he had a vasectomy. Lisa had to reassure the counsellor she was not having the child to keep it herself.

Once accepted by Cots to be a surrogate, Lisa was sent a booklet featuring couples unable to have children. No names, photos or contact details were included.

Lisa, whose own children are Nathan, 16, Jade, 13, and Demi, seven, said: 'There was only one couple from Wales and when I read their profile, it was like I already knew them. They had gone through six cycles of IVF. They were emotionally drained.'

The first time she phoned Melissa, it was like 'speaking to a sister' says Lisa, a French polisher who also works for Tesco and breeds Bengal Asian Leopard kittens. After around 15 phone calls, the couples met.

There are two types of surrogacy. With traditional surrogacy, which is done by artificial insemination, the surrogate uses her own egg which is fertilised with the intended father's sperm. With gestational - used in Lisa's case - the child is carried by the surrogate but is the genetic child of the intended parents.

Unlike America, it is illegal to be paid to be a surrogate in Britain. You can only claim expenses which is what Lisa did covering items such as the pay she would have earned for nine months maternity clothes and travel costs.

She said: 'You don't get paid a penny over expenses. I would have done it free of charge. Money was never a question. It was nothing to do with that.'

Lisa, who fell pregnant after just three attempts, said: 'Melissa and Tom were on a camping holiday in Scotland when it happened. I phoned them and she didn't believe it. She made me do three pregnancy tests and I had to have one done by the doctor. She still didn't believe it until the first scan.'

Tom and Melissa, who was allowed maternity leave, attended every scan, doctor and midwife and appointment, spoke to Lisa on the phone twice daily and meticulously planned every detail.

For Lisa, meanwhile, pregnancy was the breeze it had always been.

She said: 'I don't mind being pregnant. I work right through and after giving birth I feel like I could run a marathon. I'm like wonder woman.

'I do have easy births. With Nathan I was only in labour for three hours, one hour 20 minutes with Jade and with Demi, I just about got to the hospital.'

Lisa's was the first surrogate pregnancy the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend had ever had so Cots ran a seminar for the midwives. Throughout the nine months Melissa and Tom were treated as the legal parents.

Then in March 2002, Lisa's waters broke and she was kept in hospital for a week. By now, the couples were good friends and Melissa and Tom stayed in Lisa's house, even taking their children out for a McDonald's.

James was born 6lbs 14oz, four weeks early with Melissa and Tom present throughout the birth.

Lisa said: 'Melissa can't remember any of that day, she was so emotionally shaken and in a daze. After he was born she just sat there crying. She was more drained than me. I had him, then Melissa had him. Tom was crying and shaking like a leaf.

'I went straight home and left them there. I went to bingo the same night. It didn't feel strange, he was with his mother and father.'

While Lisa enjoyed a night of bingo and restful sleep, Melissa and Tom experienced their first sleepless night and plenty of dirty nappies. A fact they laughed about the following morning.

Exactly two years after having James, Lisa gave birth to a second child for Melissa and Tom, Lucy.

She said: 'I knew straight away, I was going to do it again. I said to them 'you just can't have one' and they wanted another one.'

Unfortunately, Tom and Melissa missed Lucy's birth because Lisa went into labour at 4am and tried to contact them but they were fast asleep and didn't hear the phone. Lisa, who got pregnant with Lucy on the first attempt, said: 'I phoned Melissa at 7.30am and said 'congratulations, you're a mother'.'

Having Lucy, now two, meant repeating the same complicated pre-pregnancy process, but Lisa had no hesitations: 'It didn't bother me doing it all again. It was worth it for me to see them with James and Lucy.

'In 15 years time James could turn out to be a scientist who comes up with a cure for some disease. They are having a good upbringing and being well educated. You could not ask for better mother and father.'

Today, the two families meet regularly, speak on the phone weekly and on special days such as when James, four, started school.

Lisa said: 'I don't know if we were supposed to keep in touch but it's just been quite natural. Demi has asked 'what are James and Lucy to me?' I tell her 'they're your cousins'.

'Seeing them is just like our friends bringing their kids to visit. We see them at Christmas, Easter and birthdays. On Mother's Day, Melissa sends me flowers and normally I have card. I also send her a card.'

Lisa added: 'I would do it again - not for Melissa and Tom, they've got two now - but I would do it again.' Hundreds of births for Cots: Surrogacy is legal in the UK on the proviso that no money other than 'reasonable expenses' should be paid to the surrogate.

There is no strict definition of what constitutes 'reasonable expenses' so this is left to the individuals involved to agree.

Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy (Cots) believes reasonable expenses ranges anything up to pounds 12,000. Expenses would include any costs incurred by a surrogate as a result of the pregnancy.

It is illegal to advertise for surrogates or intended parents.

Currently, the law does not recognise surrogacy as a binding agreement, so there is little the intended parents can do to secure their position prior to the birth.

However, around 98 per cent of arrangements involving Cots members have reached successful conclusions and the organisation celebrated its 500th birth in August 2004.

Cots, which is run without financial gain, was founded in 1988 and has more than 750 members. It has a splinter group Triangle which puts surrogates in touch with intended parents.

It insists that while there have been incidences where a surrogate's prime motivation has been financial gain, these cases are the exception and most women become surrogates to help others.