UK's first surrogate mother 'heartbroken' she did not meet baby's parents

Britain's first surrogate mother said she felt "heartbroken" and "cheated" after handing over a baby girl she gave birth to 30 years ago today to a couple she never met.

Kim Cotton was paid £6,500 to have a baby for an infertile Swedish couple on 4th January, 1985, in an arrangement brokered through an American agency.

The mother-of-two agreed to become a surrogate having never met the pair and they have remained anonymous ever since, along with the daughter she conceived for them.

Mrs Cotton, 58, has admitted she was "naive" to have entered the arrangement and described the way she was treated by the US agency as "truly abhorrent".

The case prompted surrogacy to be regulated in the UK, as companies were banned from brokering deals between couples and potential mothers for profit.

Mrs Cotton, who used her own egg to conceive the child and the sperm of a man whose wife was infertile, was forced to leave the baby in hospital after she was made a ward of court.

Mrs Cotton, now a grandmother-of-five, agreed in her contract not to contact Baby Cotton after she was adopted by the couple.

Asked whether she had any regrets about the surrogacy, she replied: "None.

She added: "Surrogacy is very empowering. It's a wonderful, fulfilling feeling to bring a life in to the world. You can never have regrets about achieving that."