Hilaria Baldwin says she felt 'shamed' after welcoming daughter through surrogate
Hilaria Baldwin is opening up about her pregnancy journey.
On Monday, the 38-year-old took to Instagram to promote the third episode of Witches Anonymous, which she co-hosts with Michelle Campbell Mason.
The podcast takes a look women's issues and how women interact with each other to evoke feelings of community, support and inspiration.
While the third episode touched on motherhood and pregnancy, Baldwin defended her decision to welcome daughter Lucia through a surrogate.
The yoga instructor — who gave birth naturally to six of her seven kids with husband Alec Baldwin — has clapped back at critics and stated that her 20-month-old daughter is not "any less" worthy of being her child because of how she was delivered.
"There's no difference, and people assume that I'm less of a mom, that she's less of my daughter. She is just as attached to me as all my other ones," she said. "I don't have a difference between my daughter that was born via surrogacy and my six other children that I carried."
In 2019, Baldwin endured two miscarriages before using a surrogate. She also explained that there "are many different ways to become a parent."
She added that she felt "shamed" for choosing to use surrogacy, which made her feel like an "outcasted person."
"If you cannot breed in the traditional way, or you do not want to breed in the traditional way, people think that they have a right to talk about it," Baldwin said.
Meanwhile, Baldwin shared that she talks "every single day" with her surrogate and they have an "amazing" relationship — but she's keeping her identity private.
"We're so close and went through such amazing transformations together," she added.
Near the end of the episode, Baldwin got candid about the impact criticism has on her, and said that by questioning her decision to use a surrogate, "it's questioning whether she [her daughter] should exist."
"They don't know my story because I have yet to share it with people, and one of the reasons I didn't share it with people is they were not very nice about it," she said. "It made me so sad, the feeling of judgement. And on such innocence."
The podcast also features special guest Michelle Stafford, best known for her role as Phyllis Summers on the hit soap opera "The Young and the Restless."
Stafford revealed her reasons for choosing surrogacy and shared that like Baldwin, she too experienced criticism with her decision.
"I got out of a relationship, I was 38-39 years old. I wanted to have children. I tried adoption and did IVF and had lot of physical issues, at that point had to have a surrogate," she shared. "It was shame, I felt like I was the biggest loser on the planet...I felt criticized and I felt people judging me."
The actress also opened up about the "lack of control" she felt during her surrogacy journey.
"The lack of control you have over the baby blew my mind and it was really hard. No one understood it and it was hard as a single woman because I didn't know anyone else going through it. Now more people are doing it more but it was really hard at first. It was something only you know about," she said.
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