Influencer is paid $40,000 to give birth to a baby for strangers who she met on Instagram

Instagram influencer Samantha Matthews became a surrogate for a Manhattan-based couple she met on the social media app.

Samantha, 31, began completing paperwork and starting IVF medication for a couple she met on Facebook in October 2020.

However, she later announced that “the intended mother got pregnant naturally”.

She told her 125,000 followers she was willing to do this for someone else.

A couple from Manhattan reached out via Instagram in July 2021, and asked her to carry their baby via in vitro fertilisation (IVF), after they had struggled to have a natural pregnancy.

After agreeing to carry the Instagram couple’s baby, Samantha flew out to New York in November 2021 to have the embryo transferred to her uterus.

The embryo was successfully implanted after the first try - which according to the NHS, only has a 32% success rate for women under 35-years-old.

And on 27 July 2022, Samantha gave birth to a baby boy weighing 5.14 pounds.

She wrote: “he was the smallest babe I’ve carried yet”.

Samantha was remunerated around $40,000 by the couple.

The 31-year-old has two children of her own with partner Dan - five-year-old son Canyon and four-year-old daughter Ember.

Samantha uses her Instagram account, @wearedanandsam, to share pregnancy tips and surrogacy information.