Whether you’re considering surrogacy because you’ve struggled with infertility, are an LGBT couple, or are a hopeful single parent, the surrogacy process can give you the child you’ve always wanted.
You can talk to a surrogacy professional right now to plan the specifics of your unique surrogacy journey.
All intended parents can expect to experience the following common five steps during the surrogacy process:
- Decide you want to grow your family through surrogacy
- Choose the surrogacy agency you want to work with
- Pick the surrogate who will carry your baby
- Complete the surrogate medical process
- Bring your baby home and enjoy parenthood
This can seem like a lot at first, but you’re in good hands. You’ll have a surrogate professional by your side every step of the way. In the meantime, continue reading to learn more about the surrogacy process for intended parents.
Step 1: Decide the Surrogacy Process is Right for You
Surrogacy is a wonderful way to grow your family. Many hopeful intended parents, including people experiencing infertility, those in the LGBT community, and single individuals hoping to become parents, choose to pursue surrogacy.
If you are still unsure if surrogacy is the right family-building option for your family, think about the benefits of surrogacy:
- Surrogacy helps couples facing infertility, LGBT couples, and hopeful intended parents become parents.
- In most surrogacy cases, gestational surrogacy allows one or both parents to be biologically related to their child.
- Intended parents get to be present for key milestones in the surrogacy process, like the embryo transfer and their baby’s birth.
Step 2: Choose the Surrogacy Agency You Want to Work With
Although you could choose to pursue independent surrogacy, your surrogacy journey will go much smoother with the help of a surrogacy agency.
Surrogacy agencies provide the following invaluable services to intended parents during the surrogacy process:
- A surrogacy professional who will provide emotional and practical support through your journey
- Assistance through all your pre-surrogacy screenings
- Help through the surrogacy medical and legal process to ensure your interests are protected
- Surrogate match-making services
- And more
We have partnered with American Surrogacy, a national surrogacy agency, to provide support for intended parents. If you’d like to get in touch with a surrogacy specialist, click here.
Step 3: Wait for a Surrogate Match
Most people work with a surrogacy agency to find the right surrogacy match. Every surrogate an agency works with is:
- Pre-screened and ready to start the surrogacy journey
- Emotionally prepared to carry another person’s baby
Depending on the agency you choose, this can either be an extremely long wait or a very short one. Some large surrogacy agencies have wait times of a year or more. Joining an agency like that would mean you are likely waiting 2-3 years until you actually have a baby.
If you are exploring surrogacy, then you’ve already waited long enough for your family. You deserve a short wait time. Currently, American Surrogacy has the shortest average wait times among agencies at an average of 30-90 days.
Once you are in a match, your surrogacy professional will then connect you with a lawyer to draft your surrogacy contract.
Step 4: Creating and Signing a Surrogacy Contract
You and the surrogate you match with will have separate surrogacy attorneys that help create your surrogacy contract. This contract ensures that your, the surrogate, and your baby’s rights are protected throughout the surrogacy.
Step 5: Complete the Surrogate Medical Process
The surrogacy medical process can take some time, but once the surrogate becomes pregnant, you’re nine months away from having your child!
Common Surrogacy Medications
Before a surrogate undergoes IVF, she will start to take a regimen of fertility medications that prepare her body for the embryo transfer. These medications include:
- Doxycycline
- Lupron
- Estrogen
- Progesterone
- Aspirin
- Tetracycline
- Medrol
- Prenatal Vitamins
What’s the Embryo Transfer?
Your eggs or donor eggs will be prepared for collection. Once the eggs are retrieved, the doctor takes the eggs and combines them with sperm. After an embryo is created, it’s transferred to the surrogate.
The In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Process
During the medical surrogacy process, the surrogate will undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the aim of becoming pregnant. The fertility clinic you work with will either use:
- You and your partner’s gametes (sperm and egg)
- One of your or your partner’s gametes and a donor’s gamete
- Donor gametes
Keep in mind that most all modern surrogacy agreements involve gestational surrogacy. This means that the woman who carries your baby is unrelated to the child.
The gestational surrogacy process is less legally risky and emotionally safer for all parties involved.
Step 5: Bring Your Baby Home and Enjoy Parenthood
Once a pregnancy is confirmed, you and the surrogate will go to OBGYN appointments together so you can watch your child grow. Most times, you also will get to accompany the surrogate while she gives birth to your baby.
After the surrogate delivers your child, you get to take your baby home! The surrogate will be discharged from the hospital, and the surrogacy process will be complete.
Start the Surrogacy Process Today
If you’ve been dreaming about starting your surrogacy journey and think you’re ready, a surrogacy agency can help you begin the surrogacy process. Fill out this form to get free information now.
