Baby M’s Mother Granted 6-Hour Weekly Visitation

A judge today granted Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould immediate, unsupervised visitation of six hours a week with the child she agreed to bear under a $10,000 surrogate contract.

Superior Court Judge Birger M. Sween said Whitehead-Gould’s visits with 2-year-old Melissa Stern would be expanded from one six-hour day a week to two days every other week in September, overnight visits in April, 1989, and two weeks during that summer.

“The court finds no credible evidence or expert opinion that Melissa will suffer any psychological or emotional harm by continued and expanded visitation with her mother,” Sween said.

His order barred both sides in the case from discussing Melissa publicly, such as in the promotion of books or movies.

The Sterns had argued during a three-day visitation hearing last week that Whitehead-Gould would use Melissa in a tour to promote a book she is writing about the case.

Counseling Ordered

Sween’s order doesn’t affect publication of Whitehead-Gould’s book, however, nor does it have any effect on a television movie being made about the case.

The judge also ordered the adults in the case to undergo counseling to ease the emotional burden on the child, who lives with her father, William Stern, and his wife, Elizabeth. The Sterns, who hired Whitehead-Gould as a surrogate, have custody of Melissa

“The court finds that Melissa’s best interests will be served by unsupervised, uninterrupted liberal visitation with her mother,” Sween said in a written decision given to attorneys.

“She and her mother have the right to develop their own special relationship,” the judge said.

In a statement issued by her attorneys, Whitehead-Gould said she was happy her relationship with her daughter “has been preserved.”

“I am delighted and grateful to know that as Melissa grows up, we’ll have a meaningful and substantial relationship with each other,” she said.

Pleased on Privacy

The Sterns were disappointed by the decision, said their attorney, Gary Skoloff, noting that the Sterns had sought to delay contact between Whitehead-Gould and Melissa for several years.

“We did not get the hiatus we asked for,” Skoloff said. “They were pleased with the mandatory counseling. And they were pleased with the privacy issue.”

He said the Sterns would make no public statement on the ruling.

Skoloff had said after the three-day hearing last week that the couple did not plan to appeal Sween’s decision, whatever the outcome.

The Sterns argued that visitation should be stopped for at least six years, while Whitehead-Gould sought the gradually expanded, unsupervised visitation she won today.