Bonita Springs woman volunteers as surrogate for her best friend

A miracle comes to Bonita Springs: one woman becomes a surrogate mother to her best friend.

Michelle Aldrich and Erika Strong have helped each other through highs and lows, like the birth of Michelle’s daughters and Erika’s wedding to her husband, Nick. Erika and Nick’s journey to starting a family has been anything but easy.

“We started with IVF. I got pregnant with twin boys. That was going great until one we knew passed at 16 weeks. And then at around 21-22 weeks, I went into the hospital with the healthy baby. He was born and passed on Halloween of 2018,” Erika said. “I’ve done five rounds of IVF, six transfers, a total 12 embryos for me and nothing worked ever since.”

Michelle said she felt her friend’s pain as if it were her own. So she said the idea of volunteering as a surrogate seemed right.

“It almost came to me like a friend says, ‘hey, I’m going to be moving,’ and you’re like, ‘okay, I’ll help you move.’ It was that natural to me to want to help her,” said Michelle.

With what they call lots of love and a little science, Michelle found out she was pregnant.

More than eight months later, Michelle is carrying Erika and Nick’s baby boy, due in a few weeks.