6 STEPS OF THE SURROGATE MOTHERHOOD PROCESS

All you need to know about surrogacy motherhood, step by step.

Regardless of your interest in increasing your family members number with the help of a surrogate mother or you are ready to help a childless family become a parent, you should certainly have many questions about the process of surrogacy motherhood and how the program works. Despite the fact that there are lots of important variable details, we prepared a step-by-step guide for you, which will help you get prepared for all the stages that are included in the surrogacy motherhood program.

1. Make sure whether participation in the surrogacy program is the right choice personally for you.

The first step on the path of gestational surrogacy motherhood is a scrupulous and detailed consideration of the issue of whether this program suits you. This way requires responsibility, can be long and quite emotional, both for the gestational courier and for the genetic parents.

Participation in the surrogacy program is a serious and responsible decision. Both parties of the program should study the laws regulating the process carefully, take into account all the advantages and disadvantages of the surrogacy process, consult reproductive specialists to see exactly whether surrogacy is for you.

For potential surrogate mothers: becoming a surrogate is a vital decision that can be extremely helpful, but it is not easy. Surrogacy motherhood requires you to become a part of another family for a year, and sometimes more, for the entire period from the beginning of medical and psychological examinations and procedures, until delivery. You have to keep up with all the difficulties connected with pregnancy and childbirth. You will carry and give birth to a child who is not your own. Many women are aware of all these difficulties and are confident that the result far exceeds the negative component.

If you are ready to go through this difficult and extremely important way, surrogate motherhood will give you a unique opportunity not only to make a noble gift.345f

If you are not sure of your desire to become a surrogate mother or need additional information before making a decision, get advice from specialists of the company that provides surrogacy motherhood services or a lawyer specializing in such matters. Only having received exhaustive information on all interesting and not completely understandable aspects to you, decide whether the surrogate motherhood program is suitable for you.

For future potential parents:  There are many reasons to become happy parents, using the help of a surrogate mother, regardless of whether you are a couple struggling with infertility, a member of the LGBT community or a single parent. Before you start the surrogacy motherhood process, you should get comprehensive information about all the risks and benefits of this program and make sure that you are completely ready for it. Responsible parents considering the process of surrogacy should be aware of the need for financial and emotional investment and be ready for the material costs associated with it and the subsequent maintenance and upbringing of the child.

If you or your spouse is not sure of your readiness to become a parent with the help of a surrogate mother or if you have questions about this program, consult a specialist and only after all complicated moments are explained, make a decision.

2. Preparation for surrogacy

As soon as a potential surrogate mother or biological parents decided to participate in the surrogacy program, the goals, needs and the type of surrogacy motherhood they want to resort to should be determined.

To begin with, you should consider the types of surrogacy:

• Traditional. With this type of surrogate mother is also a donor of the egg and, accordingly, the biological mother of the child she carries. Her egg is intrauterine inseminated by the sperm of the child's future father or donor.
• Gestational. In this type of surrogate motherhood, the child is not genetically related to the surrogate mother. Fertilization occurs in vitro using the ovum and sperm of future parents or donor. In 3-5 days from the moment of fertilization the embryo is transferred to the uterus cavity of the surrogate mother.

Secondly, there are two types of specialists in the field of surrogate motherhood that can support your program:

• Surrogacy motherhood agency can provide all the services related to surrogacy motherhood program, including selection, screening, legal support, counseling support and others.
• A surrogacy lawyer is a real help in any surrogacy process to complete legal work, but he cannot provide other important services provided by the surrogacy motherhood agency.

Intended parents and surrogate mothers should take into account these and other factors during the preparation for the surrogate motherhood program.

For potential surrogate mothers: if you feel that surrogacy motherhood is right for you, you need to consider a number of factors and make a conscious decision.

• Are you already in touch with potential biological parents or should you contact the agency to find people who are interested?
• Are you more interested in the traditional or gestational type of surrogacy motherhood?
• Do you feel confident and would like to organize it yourself or should you contact the agency?

Answers to these questions will help you to more clearly formulate your desires and develop a clear individual surrogacy motherhood plan, which will determine the goals and preferences for the entire period of the program. If you decide to resort to the help of a surrogate motherhood agency, the coordinator will help you to make up your plan with all the details, from the type of relationship with the biological parents to the degree of their comfort during and after the program. The information specified in the plan will help to facilitate negotiations with potential parents and to quickly achieve mutual understanding.

The surrogate motherhood agency coordinator you will work with you to be sure of meeting all the requirements of screening and readiness for the transition to the next stage of the surrogate motherhood program.

For future potential parents:  At this stage of the surrogate motherhood process, you need to create your own program plan, taking into account the goals and priorities of your program. When creating a plan, consider the following items:

• What type of surrogate motherhood would you like to use?
• Is there a need to use donor germ cells?
• Are you familiar with the future surrogate mother or do you need help in her selection?
• Do you need to seek help from a surrogate motherhood agency and, if so, which one?
• What are your goals in the surrogate motherhood program?

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Once you have decided on the type of surrogacy motherhood and selected an agency, the process starts to detect if you meet the requirements of future parents, which may include assessing your financial, housing conditions, checking your criminal past and much more.

3. Preparing for the meeting

One of the most exciting and important moments in the process of surrogacy motherhood is the selection of a future surrogate mother and her meeting with future parents. If you have already found a future surrogate mother, it will be enough to ask for help from a lawyer specializing in reproductive rights. If you cannot find a potential surrogate mother by yourself, you will have to ask the surrogate motherhood agency for help. As soon as potential parents or a future surrogate mother begin working with an agency specialist, the consultant will help develop individual surrogacy motherhood plans. Then, based on the plans, profiles will be created, with the help of which future parents or surrogate mothers will get acquainted.

Once the surrogate motherhood agency identifies the potential parents and the surrogate mother and finds the most consistent plans, the specialists will offer the other party the profile for acquaintance. If both parties are interested in each other, they can start a conversation in order to get to know each other better through electronic correspondence, phone calls and personal meetings. The next stage in the development of relations between the surrogate mother and parents will be an official meeting to draft the original legal contract for surrogate motherhood.

For potential surrogate mothers: you can decide with what types of potential parents and what types of relationships you would like to cooperate with. Your coordinator of surrogacy motherhood will work to find the family that meets your requirements in the best way. Among the factors determining your preferences, you can include:

• age
• religion
• race
• sexual orientation
• personal qualities
• other

To facilitate the comparison process, a surrogacy specialist will work with a surrogate to create a profile with text and a photo, so that potential parents can better understand who she is and why this woman decided to become a surrogate mother. After the first meeting, you will have the opportunity to get to know the future parents closer to understand how they fit your wishes.

For future potential parents: at a certain stage of working with you, a surrogacy motherhood agency specialist will ask you to draw up a surrogacy motherhood program plan in which you will need to state your goals and preferences in choosing a surrogate mother. This plan is necessary to compile a profile that will help you find the surrogate mother that is best suited for your purposes.

At your request, the plan can be supplemented with photos and a more detailed description of your family. This will give more information about you to the future surrogate mother. The specialists of the agency will acquaint you with the profiles that most closely coincide with your goals and desires, surrogate mothers. After you have selected a potential surrogate mother, or your profile has become interested in a potential surrogate mother, the surrogate mother agency coordinates the meeting or phone calls that will allow you to get to know each other.

Once you have ascertained that a surrogate mother that fits your profile is appropriate for your goals and preferences, you can proceed to the next stage of the surrogate motherhood process.

4. Compliance with legislation requirements

After the surrogate mother and the prospective parent (parents) decided to co-participate in the surrogacy motherhood program, their intentions must gain the official status, having signed the corresponding contract for surrogacy motherhood. Each party of the contact will have its own lawyer. This guarantees representation and protection of the legitimate interests of the parties. Consultations of each of the parties with a lawyer are held individually. During the meeting with the lawyer all legal aspects of the surrogacy motherhood contract are considered. After agreeing all aspects and parts of the agreement by both parties, lawyers will approve the contract, it will be signed by potential parents and a surrogate mother. After the end of this stage, you can start the process of fertilization and embryo transfer.

For potential surrogate mothers: during the meeting, your lawyer will discuss with you all the legal aspects of surrogacy motherhood, from possible risks to the amount of compensation. The lawyer will review the contract drawn up by the attorney of the prospective parent to make sure that it meets the requirements. After signing the contract, you are paid the allowance stipulated in the surrogacy motherhood contract.

For future potential parents: During a private meeting, your lawyer will discuss with you your legal rights, compensation, about which you and your surrogate mother came to an agreement, possible risks. After the signing of the contract, both sides come the time of the stage of fertilization and pregnancy.

At the end of the first trimester, your lawyer will assign to you the status of the legal parents of the child, which will include your names in the birth certificate of the child and make medical decisions regarding the child. This is called the prenatal order and is an important stage in the legal recognition of your child.

5. The beginning of the process of fertilization and embryo transfer.

After the signing of the contract for surrogacy motherhood, a new stage begins that includes medical procedures for preparing for embryo transfer. This process takes place in a clinic chosen by the parties under the supervision of reproductive specialists. A biological mother or an egg donor receives a specific therapy for ovulation stimulation. Further in the laboratory, fertilization of the eggs with sperm cells takes place. If necessary, certain genetic tests (PGD) are performed 3-5 days later, and then the embryo will be placed into the uterus cavity of the surrogate mother. A surrogate mother will also undergo certain medicinal treatment before and during at least up to 12^th week of pregnancy.

A matched donor of the oocytes will take medicines to help her organism produce more oocytes and undergo an egg retrieval procedure effectively. Then the cells are fertilized in the laboratory to create an embryo/embryos, which will be transferred to the surrogate. The surrogate will undergo infertility treatment before embryo transfer and throughout pregnancy.

For potential surrogate mothers: to increase the chances of successful embryo implanting, most likely you will be prescribed drugs to increase fertility before the transfer of the embryo. At a certain time, the embryo will be implanted into your uterus. The procedure of implantation is fast enough and almost painless, it does not require medical treatment or anesthesia. Most likely, you will have to spend a couple of hours in the clinic after the replanting. After a few weeks, you will need to come to the reproductive clinic in order to have a pregnancy test and in case of a positive result confirm the pregnancy. You will need to visit the clinic regularly for regular tests and ultrasound to monitor the course of pregnancy. When the fetal heart rate is fixed (usually about six weeks after embryo implantation), you will be paid monthly.

Your pregnancy will practically not be different from the usual one, except for the more frequent examinations necessary to ensure the control of the child's health. And you will regularly share your feelings with the future parents of the baby.

For future potential parents: the scheme of medical procedures will depend on whose sex cells are used for fertilization. If you and your partner are the child's genetic parents, you will be prescribed medicinal therapy to stimulate the production of sex cells. At a certain stage of the cycle, the procedure for extraction of eggs and sampling of sperm will be carried out.

Once the eggs are obtained (either yours or donor`s), they will be fertilized by the sperm of a potential father or a donor. Fertilized eggs are incubated, evaluated according to a number of parameters and the best ones are selected for implantation into the uterus cavity of the surrogate mother.

After transferring of the embryos and obtaining a positive test result, pregnancy will be confirmed. A surrogate mother will begin receiving payments as soon as the fetal heart rate starts to be fixed.

Throughout the course of the pregnancy, you will have to provide moral and emotional support to the surrogate mother and share with her all feeling at the stages of pregnancy.

6. Hello, baby!

Completion of a long period of surrogate`s pregnancy is the birth of a child. This event, which changes the life of both parties, the surrogate mother and the parents, is the most fascinating part of the program. Most parents are present during the delivery process in the clinic. In order to be able to witness and actively take part, it is necessary that the parents have a range of blood tests done. When the child is laid on the breast of a genetic father or mother, the imprinting starts from the first moments of life.

After the discharge from the hospital of the child and the surrogate mother, the family and the surrogate mother can return home - happy parents with a long-awaited child and a surrogate mother with a feeling of deep satisfaction that she was able to give the happiness of a full-fledged family to a childless couple.

A surrogate mother may, after the birth of the child, keep in touch with the new family for many years. The surrogate motherhood agency can assist in supporting these relationships, as well as all kinds of support for the surrogate mother and parents.

There is hardly a more mysterious, important and interesting process than creating a family. Regardless of whether you need help or are ready to offer such a priceless gift, surrogate motherhood is a magical process that fundamentally changes life.

Are you ready to participate in the surrogacy motherhood program? Do you need more information on how to become a surrogate mother or become a happy parent? Contact the coordinator for getting full free information package without any obligations.