Lena Dunham shares emotional first words to daughter born via surrogate

Lena Dunham is a mother, and she knew exactly what to say to the baby for the first time. 

The Girls creator and her husband, musician Luis Felber, welcomed a baby girl via surrogate, Dunham revealed in a deeply personal essay published in Vogue on Wednesday, September 16. 

The news arrives nearly a decade after Dunham underwent a hysterectomy in 2017 at age 31, a procedure that removed her uterus, cervix and one ovary following years of severe endometriosis.

In the essay, Dunham detailed the timeline of the process, revealing that the embryo transfer with her surrogate took place in November, and describing her daughter's dramatic entrance into the world. 

"And then, 13 days late, in the face of a solar eclipse and a meteor shower, she announced herself." 

Dunham reflected candidly on the emotional complexity of the surrogacy journey, writing that the jealousy she expected to feel toward her surrogate never materialised. 

"The feelings I thought would be there somehow weren't, namely jealousy, that this woman could do for a child, for my child, what I could not." 

Instead, she said she found herself envying her daughter for "the chance to be tucked into someone who radiated such safety."

Dunham described the moment she first spoke to her newborn daughter, after a midwife encouraged her to say hello, "Hello. I'm your mama. You look nothing like I thought you would, but exactly right. We've been waiting for you, do you know that? It was so nice of you to come." 

She also shared a lighter detail from earlier in the pregnancy, after her surrogate texted her a photo of a positive pregnancy test five days after the embryo transfer, Dunham went out and bought baby items immediately, a decision she said "horrified friends and family who adhere to the Jewish superstition prohibiting anticipatory purchases." 

She joked that she knew the territory well, having once worked at a Tribeca children's clothing store where she and her coworkers sold cashmere baby tank tops to Gwyneth Paltrow "for an infant Apple."