A WOMAN has revealed she had babies born 24 days apart and will raise them as twins.
Jenna Herrera, 32, became pregnant at the same time as her surrogate – leading to her having two new children in less than a month.
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The delighted, now mother of six, suffered five painful miscarriages in 10 years before she and her partner, Joe, 39, owner of a finance company, decided to have a child using a surrogate.
They were delighted when their 32-year-old surrogate became pregnant with the couple’s biological child – using Jenna’s egg and Joe’s sperm – in February 2023.
But to their utter disbelief, just four weeks into her surrogate’s pregnancy, Jenna discovered she was pregnant too.
Both women became mothers within the space of a month – and Jenna decided to raise them as ‘twins’.
Jenna had a son, Joseph, on October 1 in California, the surrogate gave birth to a boy, Alexander Jason, in Colombia 24 days later.
It’s twice the joy, but five times as much work!
Jenna Herrera
The mother says her surrogate is now “part of the family” and helped in the baby’s first days – including organizing each of her documents.
Jenna, who co-owns a finance group with Joe, from Anaheim, Southern California, USA, said: “Now we have the twins – they have twice the joy but five times the work!
“My surrogate and I talked every day – and at 12 weeks I decided to tell my surrogate that I was pregnant too.
“She was so happy for me.
“We immediately felt very comfortable being pregnant at the same time – because she is a good friend of our good friends.
“I didn’t want to tell her until the pregnancy was already advanced – we didn’t want her to feel stressed or worried.
“They’re a lot of work, but they’re worth it.”
Jenna has two daughters, Sophia, nine, and Isabella, seven, from a previous relationship.
She revealed that she had her first three consecutive miscarriages in 2013, at age 23, but doctors couldn’t say why they happened.
Not satisfied with the answer her doctor in the US gave her, Jenna traveled to a doctor in Mexico who told her she had a hormone deficiency.
But he said her chances of getting pregnant – and staying pregnant – depended mainly on “luck”.
She said: “Abortions were explained to me as just being ‘bad luck’ – as if sometimes life wasn’t fair.
“I wasn’t getting much help in the US – but we live near California, which is very close to Mexico, so we saw a fertility doctor there.
“He said I’m lacking a specific hormone – but he couldn’t give me any more details than that.”
Between 2014 and 2021, Jenna carried two pregnancies to term – and is stepmother to her husband Joe’s children from a previous relationship – Jamie, 17, and Jasmine, 20.
But in January 2022, Jenna and Joe decided they wanted to have a baby — and started trying to get pregnant naturally.
In the space of nine months – Jenna had two more miscarriages and the pair decided in October 2022 that they were unlikely to have a child without help.
Jenna said: “I’ve had two more miscarriages in the last year – I was taking hormone supplements but they didn’t seem to work.
“I’ve struggled to stay pregnant my whole life – there was never a clear explanation, they just couldn’t do it.
“My doctor told me I didn’t really need IVF – I was getting pregnant, I didn’t need help. So in October we decided we would explore surrogacy.”
When researching surrogacy in the US, Jenna discovered that the average wait time for a “match” was 18 months – and she didn’t want to wait that long.
She spoke to a family friend in Colombia – who had a baby via surrogate the same month – and her surrogate agreed to set Jenna up on a date with one of her friends, who doesn’t want to be named.
They had a Zoom call and Jenna was “happy” to find that they clicked.
In November, Jenna went to Colombia to offer moral support to her surrogate as she underwent physical testing – and once approved, one of Jenna’s three healthy embryos was implanted.
The following month, Jenna’s replacement discovered the recovery was successful.
But just four weeks later, Jenna discovered she was also pregnant.
“Our surrogate’s pregnancy took a long time,” Jenna said.
“She was very excited, we were very excited.
“And then we were pregnant this whole time.
“I didn’t want to tell her about my pregnancy until she was at the end of the first trimester. She was 12 weeks and I was 16.
“Joe and I are obviously raising our two newborns – but in the beginning we saw our surrogate every day.
“She had to be part of the exit process – like civil registration and obtaining US and Colombian passports.
“Every day we had to be together somewhere – and we always went to lunch, dinner or ice cream together.”
Now that she is raising them as twins, the mother is thrilled to be able to breastfeed them both and also has lots of family trips planned with her surrogate.
It’s so easy with one baby – I’m a little nervous with two
Jenna Herrera
“We talk every day and communicate – we are very close,” adds the mother.
Jenna and Joe went to Colombia to be with their surrogate while she gave birth.
They are planning to raise the boys as “twins” and want them to participate in the same sports clubs and religious groups.
Jenna added: “I think they came from the same batch of eggs – I haven’t had a cycle between each retrieval – so I don’t know if they will look like twins.
“I’m very curious to see.
“My husband is a musician – he will want them to play drums.
“My family is more athletic and competitive – we just want them to do the same things.
“It’s so easy with one baby – I get a little nervous with two.”
Jenna, her surrogate and the two boys will get together to celebrate their first birthday in Mexico.
She added: “We plan to see each other every October – for the rest of our lives!”
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