Giuliana and Bill Rancic Are Expecting a Baby -- but She's Not Pregnant

Finally, some good news for Giuliana and Bill Rancic: After struggling with infertility for years, and then receiving a breast cancer diagnosis last year, followed by a double mastectomy, Giuliana Rancic is going to be a mother. The couple announced the happy news on the Today Show early Monday morning, and the well wishes have been pouring in ever since.

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But her infertility issues and breast cancer haven't been cured overnight. In fact, Giuliana's not even pregnant. The Rancics are using what's called a gestational carrier, a woman who carries the fertilized embryo of the parents. So, while another woman is carrying the baby to term and will deliver, he or she will biologically belong to the Rancics.

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Giuliana and Bill aren't the first celebrity couple to welcome a child using a gestational carrier, either. In early 2011, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman announced their second daughter, Faith Margaret, was born using one. Dennis and Kimberly Quaid are the parents to twins, Thomas Boone and Zoe Grace, born using a gestational carrier. And Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance also welcomed twins using their own embryo carried by another woman.

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If this is something you may be interested in pursuing, though, there are a few things to know. One, it ain't cheap. And I don't mean kind of expensive, I mean break-out-in-cold-sweats expensive. One round of IVF can run you around $15,000. Then, you can look to spend about $25,000 on the carrier and the pregnancy. You'll be paying for the carrier's prenatal care and all medical costs, as well as a fee for the service she is providing. And if you go through an agency, you can expect to pay them a hefty fee as well for connecting you to your carrier.

Second, it may not be legal where you live. Many states still have some issues with paying a woman to carry a child. So while it may be perfectly legal for someone you know to generously volunteer to do it for you, you could end up in jail if you compensate a woman for her womb. But it seems that as surrogacy and gestational carriers become a little more commonplace in the U.S., the laws are shifting in their favor.

If this sounds like a good option for you, I would recommend contacting a family law attorney or an agency that specializes in surrogacy and gestational carriers. They can give you a realistic picture of what lies ahead, including the cost and the legality of the process in your state. It was a long and hard journey for the Rancics, but come "late summer," it will have a very happy ending.

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