Surrogacy FAQs for Intended Parents
A surrogate is a woman who has decided to help another family have a child by undergoing IVF treatment. During IVF treatment, doctors transfer the parent(s)’ embryos to the surrogate’s uterus. After the embryo transfer, the surrogate then carries the baby until delivery.
Our agency can help you at each step of the surrogate selection process. Once we get to know you and your expectations, we’ll be able to recommend profiles of some of our surrogates who may be a good match with you. If both you and your chosen surrogate(s) feel that you may want to work together, we’ll set up a face to face or a video match meeting.
Every situation is different, but you should look for a surrogate with goals that are common to yours. You should consider communication preferences, the location for delivering the baby, and each person’s stance on invasive procedures and terminating the surrogate pregnancy.
Our surrogates undergo a thorough background check and a home visit with a licensed social worker. Surrogates also undergo an intensive medical screening. The surrogate medical screening process includes:
- Testing for diseases and drugs
- An ultrasound to ensure that the uterus is free from anything that may hinder a pregnancy from taking place.
- A psychological screening.
- A prenatal screening.
No, in the United States where surrogacy is legal, surrogacy laws and legal contracts between a parent(s) and a surrogate will not allow the surrogate to keep the baby.
Our agency only completes gestational surrogacy journeys where the baby does not have a genetic link to the surrogate. The embryo that a doctor transfers to a surrogate comes from the intended parent(s)’ or donor eggs and sperm. The embryo can also come from a combination of an intended parent’s and donor’s genetic material.
A surrogate baby can be biologically yours if you use your own egg and your partner’s own sperm to create an embryo. Alternatively, a surrogate baby’s genetics can come partly from one intended parent and partly from an egg donor or sperm donor.
No. We only assist with gestational surrogacy journeys.
No. The surrogate does not contribute any genetic material to the embryo. So, the baby will not look like the surrogate.
In gestational surrogacy, the surrogate is just the carrier of a child with the parents’ genetics or a combination of a parent’s and donor genetics. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate uses her own egg to conceive a child. Here at Premium Surrogacy, we only work with gestational surrogates.
The length of a surrogacy journey depends on a multitude of factors. These factors include how long it takes to create embryos, how long it takes to select a surrogate, and how many transfers it takes for the surrogate to become pregnant. A good estimation is 18 months from surrogate selection to delivery.
We look for both parties to have common goals for the surrogacy process, i.e. communication during pregnancy and after the delivery or views on termination of the surrogate pregnancy based on medical grounds. However, agreeing to work together is ultimately up to the intended parent(s) and the surrogate.
A match meeting is a chance for you and the potential surrogate to get to know each other. The meeting is a time for both parties to ask questions about how they see things happening during a potential pregnancy. We address any questions or concerns you have during the meeting, but the meeting’s primary focus is for the parties to have a casual conversation. We want to ensure that the intended parents and the surrogate mesh well together.
After the meeting, our team follows up with each party individually to see if there were any additional questions a party was not comfortable asking during the meeting. We also ask each person about their thoughts on working together. We never force a surrogacy arrangement; a surrogacy match needs to be mutually agreeable to both the intended parent(s) and the surrogate.
The intended parents typically make decisions regarding the baby after consultation with medical specialists. The surrogate legal agreement and state laws may specify situations where the surrogate makes decisions regarding the baby.
Both parties can decide the nature of the relationship during and after the pregnancy. For example, we work to match intended parents who want limited contact with a surrogate who seeks the same degree of interaction. After birth, there is no ongoing legal relationship, and both parties can make decisions on whether to stay in contact or not.
In most of the surrogacy-friendly states we work with, an attorney files a pre-birth order with a court before the baby’s birth. The court then sends a declaration of parentage to the hospital, and the hospital then places the intended parents’ names on the birth certificate. There can be some exceptions to this process due to varying state-specific laws and international policies. We are always happy to connect you with an attorney who can counsel you on applicable laws for your situation.