One of my favorite times of year is the arrival of the Fall season. Children go back to school and they and their caregivers begin to settle into their new routines. The days get shorter, the nights get longer, and there’s a wonderful feeling of warmth and grounded-ness. It is also a time for reflection on the past year and looking forward to the New Year, setting new goals and making future plans. Many women, including myself, take this time to explore opportunities in the world of surrogacy.
Gestational surrogacy is when you carry another’s fertilized embryo to term, affording a chance for someone with fertility challenges to start and raise a family of their own. It’s an incredible opportunity to not only make someone’s dreams come true, but create space and financial flexibility for your own family. There are a range of requirements to be a surrogate, but here are four of the most important and frequently-asked-about things to know about gestational surrogacy to see if it’s right for you:
1. Surrogate Qualifications:
You must have experienced at least one previous, full-term, uncomplicated pregnancy and no more than five previous pregnancies. If you’ve delivered via Cesarean section, the maximum number of previous births lowers to three. The age requirement is in the range of 21 to 45 years old. You will need to take various medications to prepare your body for pregnancy, so you will need to have professional medical guidance and support in taking those shots or being instructed to administer them yourself. The last big one is your body mass index (BMI). As much as this number may not be reflective of your overall health, it is what fertility clinics use as a baseline for screening clearance. Your BMI needs to be between 19-34.
2. Surrogate Compensation:
A surrogate is compensated not only with base compensation but also with other helpful forms of financial support, culminating in a comprehensive compensation package. The base compensation ranges between $40,000-$55,000 depending on your experience. Each agency builds their packages differently, but most usually include a monthly stipend, payments for any medical procedures and medication related to the pregnancy, a general health and wellness package and more. As a surrogate, anything related to the pregnancy will be paid for by the Intended Parents, including insurance and travel expenses.
3. The Surrogacy Journey Takes a Minimum of Eighteen Months:
Being a surrogate is a commitment. The time from making the decision to become a surrogate to getting through screening can take two to six months, depending on how quickly records are collected and appointments are made. Then there is the matching process, medical evaluation and legal contracts, which will take another three to six months. Next is the medication process and the embryo transfer that leads to pregnancy, which takes about two months. Finally, there is the nine months of pregnancy leading up to the birth.
4. The Surrogate is Supported Through the Whole Process:
When using a surrogacy agency (as opposed to doing an independent surrogacy journey), there is someone there to support and guide you every step of the way. There are surrogacy support groups with other surrogates, and your personal surrogacy coordinator who has been through it all before. They will help navigate the process of records collection, scheduling appointments, creating your profile and managing medication. The agency also manages all the financial aspects – an important piece of the journey – to insure prompt and proper compensation throughout. The role of an agency is to make your journey as smooth and relaxed as possible, so you can spend your energy on getting to know your Indented Parents and enjoying the pregnancy. The agency will also support you through the postpartum period and beyond, so that you can transition as seamlessly as possible back into life after pregnancy.
Women who are called to surrogacy come to it for myriad different reasons. But no matter the reason, one thing is always at the core of the decision: they are giving the gift of parenthood to deserving people and making dreams come true, all while enriching their own life in the process.
