Hoda Ahmari Tehran - Research Center for Medicine and Religion, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
Shohreh Tashi - Fertility and Infertility Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Nahid Mehran - Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
Narges Eskandari - Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

Background: Surrogacy is one of the new techniques of assisted reproduction technology in which a woman carries and bears a child for another woman. In Iran,many Shia clerics and jurists considered it permissible so there is no religious prohibition for it. In addition to the risk of physical complications for completesurrogate mothers, the possibility of psychological complications resulted from emotional attachment to a living creature in the surrogate mother as another injuryrequires counseling and assessment prior to acceptance by infertile couples and complete surrogate mothers. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the emotional experiences of surrogate mothers. Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative, phenomenological study. Weselected eight complete surrogate mothers in Isfahan. We used convenient sampling method and in-depth interview to collect the information. The data analysis was fulfilled via Colaizzi’s seven-stage method. Reliability and validity study of theroots in the four-axis was done. Results: The findings of these interviews were classified into two main themes and four sub themes: acquired experiences in pregnancy (feelings toward pregnancy,relationship with family, relatives and commissioning couple) and consequences of surrogacy (complications of pregnancy, religious and financial problems of surrogacy). Conclusion: Surrogacy pregnancy should be considered as high-risk emotionalexperience because many of surrogate mothers may face negative experiences. Therefore, it is recommended that surrogates should receive professional counseling prior to, during and following pregnancy

Surrogate mothers, Emotion, Experiences, Qualitative study