Sunshine Hanson on the Business of Being a Surrogate

Sunshine Hanson on the Business of Being a Surrogate

From Other People's Pockets by Maya Lau

April 13, 2026 · 1h 2m

About this episode

Sunshine Hanson discusses her experiences as a surrogate and the financial and ethical implications of surrogacy.

How do you compensate someone for giving life to another person's dream? Sunshine Hanson is a three-time gestational surrogate, which means that on three different occasions, she was pregnant with and gave birth to other people’s babies, and was paid for it. Her experience of helping families who wanted biological children but could not carry them on their own and navigating the financial aspects of that, inspired her to start her own agency, called "Surrogacy is...," which matches intended parents with prospective surrogates. I’ve always wanted to interview a surrogate because I’m fascinated by the idea of getting paid to do something that is so personal and that you really can’t put a price on. We talked about how much money she made by being a surrogate; how it helped her pay off debt and reach financial goals; the ethics of paying someone to be pregnant & how to guard against exploitation; and about the financial literacy that should be talked about more in life and in the world of surrogacy. Email me (Maya) with guest ideas, questions, or hello's at otherpeoplespockets@gmail.com . Find me on social media here . Find Sunshine: Surrogacy.is Instagram Facebook TikTok…

People in this episode

Host: Maya Lau

Guest: Sunshine Hanson

Topics covered

  • surrogacy
  • financial literacy
  • ethics
  • parenting
  • business

Keywords

  • surrogate
  • gestational surrogate
  • financial goals
  • exploitation
  • surrogacy agency

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Surrogacy is...

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