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Cannot wait to meet you and share more about our program! In the meanwhile feel free to learn more about surrogacy below.
Why Do So Many People Become Surrogates?
You want to help another family in completing your family as you did yours.
You want new opportunities for your family with financial resources
You want to set an example of the ultimate gift you can share with others for your family
You loved being pregnant!
What to know about surrogacy and becoming a surrogate
The Ultimate Guide on Helping Families Fulfill Their Dreams
You might be wondering what it's like to become a surrogate. We know that it is a truly amazing and generous choice that can completely transform a hopeful family's world. Imagine being the one who helps them bring a new life into the world when they can't do it on their own... it's heartwarming and a deeply meaningful experience.
In this guide, we're going to dive headfirst into the world of surrogacy. We'll talk about why someone would want to become a surrogate in the first place, what surrogacy actually is, the requirements you'll need to meet, how the whole process works from start to finish, and what you'll need to do to get ready so that you have a complete picture.
Now, here's the exciting part: surrogacy is like a rocket ship that's taking off in the world of family-building. When life throws challenges like infertility, health hiccups, or biology curveballs into the mix, surrogacy can save the day. In fact, it's booming in popularity! The number of surrogate or gestational carrier (GC) cycles has increased over two times in the last decade according to the CDC.
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What is a Surrogate?
A surrogate, also known as a gestational carrier, is a woman who carries and gives birth to a baby for an individual or couple who cannot conceive or safely carry a pregnancy themselves.
​​The surrogate undergoes in vitro fertilization (IVF) using the egg and sperm of the intended parents or donors. This means that the surrogate does not have a genetic relationship to the baby she is carrying. Her role is to nurture the pregnancy and successfully deliver a healthy baby to the intended parent or parents. This type of gestational surrogacy has clear genetic separation and legal protections in the US for all parties.
Why Become a Surrogate?
Women choose surrogacy for profoundly personal reasons. The decision involves careful thought, consent from loved ones, medical evaluation, and ultimately a calling to carry life for hopeful families.
The joy of giving
Motivations range from financial incentives to the deep desire to help couples or individuals overcome their own fertility challenges to complete their families. The gift of surrogacy is often rooted in the surrogate’s values or in her intimate experience supporting the journey of a close friend or family member.
Here are the most commonly cited reasons for becoming a surrogate:
Altruism - The Joy of Giving
The number one reason women decide to become surrogates is sheer altruism – their innate joy in giving to others. Nearly 90% of surrogates share that surrogacy enables them to live out this core value. Over half volunteer regularly in other capacities as well.
Support a Loved One Who Struggled with Fertility
Two-thirds of surrogates have an intimate understanding of infertility thanks to a close friend or relative who required extensive medical intervention to have a baby. Their own exposure lights a passion to directly help others.
Share the Magic of Pregnancy
Some women deeply love being pregnant and delivering babies. For those who feel their families are complete, surrogacy offers a chance to enjoy pregnancy again while also helping intended parents desperate to know those feelings.
Relationships with Intended Parent
The relationships surrogates forge with intended parents also emerge as a profoundly meaningful reason women decide to become surrogates. Bonds rooted in trust, understanding, and deep appreciation can thrive both during the journey and beyond.
Personal Growth and Purpose
Many surrogates describe immense feelings of empowerment, growth, purpose, and confidence that surface during their service. The experience changes their self-perception, priorities, and life path.
Financial Incentives
Earning compensation also factors prominently in most surrogates’ decisions. Over 60% appreciate surrogacy as a way to achieve greater financial security for their families via debt pay down, new opportunities like travel or savings growth.
Who Needs a Surrogate, or Types of Intended Parents
Surrogacy opens doors for a diversity of people challenged to build families on their own
Couples Experiencing Infertility
Despite medical innovations, about 10-15% of couples in America still face infertility issues and struggle to conceive or carry a healthy pregnancy. Turning to surrogacy and IVF combines cutting-edge science with the human spirit.
Single Mothers or Fathers by Choice
More people today are intentionally choosing single parenthood when they choose or are unable to find a co-parenting partner. Surrogacy empowers these individuals to build their family regardless.
LGBTQ+ Couples and Individual
Surrogacy gifts same-sex male couples and LGBTQ+ singles the chance to have biological children when traditional conception is not possible
Couples with Health Risks
Some couples with genetic risks like cancer, autoimmune disorders, severe diabetes, heart conditions, or prior surgery can make pregnancy very high-risk or even life-threatening. Surrogacy provides a safer path to parenthood by relying on a healthy woman with prior pregnancy experience to carry the pregnancy.
Those Who Experienced Pregnancy Loss
Some hopeful mothers who endure the devastation of miscarriage, stillbirth, or newborn loss might choose surrogacy to avoid emotional risks with future pregnancies. Surrogacy offers reassurance while still allowing for a biological baby.
Surrogate Requirements
All surrogacy agencies have strict requirements for qualifying as a potential gestational carrier and Nascency is no different. Guidelines protect the health and safety of both the surrogate and the baby she will carry. Qualifications also aim to minimize risk and maximize the chances that a surrogate will deliver a healthy child without complications.
Women tempted to over romanticize surrogacy as a simplistic 9-month process enabling selfless heroism may discount real hurdles baked into these intricate journeys. Surrogacy’s rewards assuredly manifest, but only by first navigating demands.
Here are the typical requirements assessed to become a surrogate:
Age Requirements
Surrogates are typically between 21 and 41 years old. Some clinics may allow very experienced surrogates up to older ages and age minimums exist to ensure emotional maturity to make such an important decision.
Proven Fertility and Pregnancy History
Surrogates need at least one, if not two, previous pregnancies that progressed to full-term delivery without major complications. This slate proves not only proven fertility but also that a woman’s body can sustain a healthy pregnancy. Some agencies require that surrogates be actively parenting their own children.
General Health
Overall mental and physical health are closely evaluated, including family medical histories and current medications or conditions. Surrogates must possess both physical capacity and emotional readiness to endure all phases of pregnancy and delivery.
Lifestyle Factors
Diet, exercise, smoking habits and even housing conditions are reviewed. Surrogates commit to clean living to optimize the pregnancy environment throughout gestation. Activities like extreme sports may also be curtailed.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Surrogates should maintain a Body Mass Index (BMI) within the typical range of 18-33 prior to embryo transfer. BMI standards ensure minimal health risks related to weight during gestation.
Mental health and Psychological Well-Being
Formal psychological evaluations are conducted to affirm mental fitness for serving as a surrogate - this is done for intended parents too!. Assessing mental health and self-awareness helps confirm readiness for surrogacy. The ability to separate from the baby after birth is crucial (and supported throughout the journey).
Informed Consent and Support
Thorough briefings ensure surrogates fully grasp the medical, emotional, and lifestyle realities for the entire journey. Ongoing consent from a surrogate’s partner and family signal she has a support network outside the agency. Their consistent encouragement is pivotal.
Background Checks and Legal Reviews
Vetting related to criminal history, educational background, and employment aim to affirm overall credibility and character aligned with the immense responsibility of surrogacy. Legal reviews also ensure compliance based on each state’s distinct laws.
How Does Surrogacy Work? Understanding the Process
The surrogacy process leverages groundbreaking capabilities of modern fertility medicine by combining in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology with the generosity of surrogate women. Here’s the process to get started and go through the process :
Surrogacy timeline:
Take the online quiz, and speak with our surrogacy coaches (these are most always experienced surrogates or intended parents (IPs) who can speak to the journey from personal experience)
Share your preferences for IPs, review a surrogacy package that covers the journey and conduct background checks as well as pre-screens (medical, home, mental health). We make this easy for you.
Match with an intended family! Once you qualify you get to select the family to embark on your journey with.
Next you'll undergo a medical screening with the fertility specialist, getting the green light to move forward
Legal agreements are completed (at no cost to you!) spelling out all the rights and responsibilities for all parties
The intended parents’ or donors’ sperm and eggs are combined via IVF to create embryos and the embryo is created. Meanwhile you take medications to prepare you body for pregnancy
One (or more - this is rare in our experience) embryos are transferred!
Initial pregnancy tests affirm implantation and hopefully there is an early ultrasound detect fetal heartbeats
Ongoing medical care monitors pregnancy progression and health through delivery
You give birth to a baby or babies that are delivered to intended parents. Ongoing help like breast milk is something that is decided at the beginning of the process. You'll receive mental health support through the journey
Agencies like Nascency specialize in navigating all the medical, emotional, and legal complexities of this incredible process with compassion and care so that surrogacy is an incredible experience for all. It's important to check what sort of support you'll have through the process.
Choosing the Right Surrogacy Agency
Expert guidance and support is pivotal when becoming a surrogate, and choosing the right agency is important.
Require Complete Transparency from your agency
Surrogacy involves significant medical intervention paired with immense emotions given new life is literally involved. A good agency removes guesswork by providing abundant detail about processes, policies, professionals involved, legal issues, and payment norms. They tailor timelines and plans to your unique needs versus following a rigid playbook expecting you to just conform.
Seek Relationship Commitment
The agency should actively foster relationships between you as a surrogate and prospective intended parents based explicitly on shared priorities. Quality time enabling authentic connections before matching is essential. Continued team support allowing both parties to gain understanding and align on expectations throughout the process is also pivotal.
Demand Protections and Advocacy
Your health, wellbeing, and rights require safeguarding before, during and after surrogacy pregnancy. Agencies must secure your emotional, legal and medical best interests at all times versus primarily protecting intended parents or their own liability. If any friction surfaces, they should have helped you anticipate issues ahead of you and they are there to manage issues along the way.
Verify Payment Philosophy
You generously invest your body, sanity, and family life as a surrogate. The exchange warrants just compensation that considers every cost surrogacy incurs - not just medical bills. The right agency structures attractive compensation grounded in appreciation of the surrogate’s priceless gift to intended parents.
We seek to set the gold standard based on these criteria - and countless surrogacy journeys completed with intended parents worldwide. The path ahead is intensely personal, so choose your agency wisely right from the start.
Now that you’ve got a handle on picking the right agency, let’s walk step-by-step through the surrogacy process.
The Surrogacy Process from Start to Finish
While each woman’s surrogacy journey is unique, the fundamental phases are consistent across agencies and clinics. Below is a high-level overview:
Apply and Get Qualified
Everything begins by completing requirements like an application, background checks, medical reviews, and psychological evaluations to confirm their fitness serving as a surrogate.
Medical Preparation and Embryo Transfer
Your body will be medically primed for pregnancy before undergoing a procedure to transfer an embryo or embryos into your uterus for hopeful implantation.
Legal Contract and Fertility Clinic Selection
You, your family, the intended parents and both legal teams negotiate surrogacy contracts addressing all potential legal, medical and payment scenarios that could unfold across the pregnancy journey and birth. Intended parents also select their fertility clinic.
Pregnancy and Delivery
With positive pregnancy tests and developing heartbeats confirming implantation success, you shift focus to nurturing a healthy pregnancy supported by intended parents, agency staff and outside medical guidance.
Match with Prospective Parents
Vetted intended parents wanting to pursue surrogacy work with the agency’s experts to evaluate mutual priorities and preferences critical for matching.
Post Birth Recovery
Agency guidance continues during your recovery phase after the intense process of pregnancy and childbirth. Intended parents assume all parenting duties once birth occurs
Preparing to Be a Surrogate
Prospective surrogates wondering “How can I prepare?” will appreciate the abundance of specialized resources available through quality agencies like Nascency as their journeys commence.
Still, foundational elements within a surrogate hopeful’s control merit attention from Day One. As women navigate the decision to become a surrogate, focusing on health, knowledge, introspection around their key priorities and mustering their inner strength establishes an optimal mindset before matching with intended parents.
Consider these self-directed actions for preparing your body, mind and support structure:
Physical Health Optimization Any surrogate match begins with the intended parents’ selected fertility clinic ultimately determining medical eligibility.
Get a head start by proactively asking your general practitioner to conduct lab work, imaging or diagnostic tests that fertility doctors will require related to your reproductive health. Track down old medical records from your obstetrician to have handy documenting past pregnancies.
Establish care with a therapist or counselor early so psychological sign-off flows faster.
Learn, Learn, Learn Pour through reputable content and talk to agency insiders to deeply grasp what surrogate pregnancy demands physically, practically for your family, and emotionally as you bond but then relinquish a baby carried for nine months.
Nascency offers a dedicated Surrogacy Learning Center community packed with articles, videos, experienced surrogate perspectives, expert interviews and more.
Introspection to Unearth Non-Negotiables
Invest in self-reflection around key priorities and boundaries as another woman soon counts on you to carry their child. What relationship do you desire with intended parents? How do you envision delivering updates or milestones? What physical or emotional support
Introspection to Unearth Non-Negotiables Invest in self-reflection around key priorities and boundaries as another woman soon counts on you to carry their child. What relationship do you desire with intended parents? How do you envision delivering updates or milestones?
What physical or emotional support during pregnancy is non-negotiable from your inner circle? Defining your absolutes allows for needs-based alignment with prospective intended parents.
Family Buy-In Frank discussions to confirm your significant other, children, parents and any key confidants feel sufficiently informed and offer blessing for your pending role cannot be shortchanged.
Their ongoing encouragement will buoy you when demands intensify physically and emotions crest at certain milestones across the 12-month marathon. Any hesitation merits deeper dialogue and issue resolution well before contracts get signed.
Fitness Routine with No Excess Embracing a consistent workout regimen and conscientious clean eating lay sturdy fitness foundations for the marathon ahead while also demonstrating maturity to intended parents and fertility doctors. But over exercise, extreme diets or drastic weight changes could hamper hormones critical for implantation success. Moderation and self care is best.
Now that you’ve tackled self-imposed surrogacy readiness Groundwork, discussing expectations around relationships with intended parents is equally essential.
Your Relationship with Intended Parents The intensity and rewards of becoming a surrogate directly correlate with the depth of relationship cultivated with the intended parents matched to your journey.
Reputable agencies prioritize meaningful introductions and guided interaction to foster understanding between surrogates and prospective parents well before contracts get signed or embryos get transferred.
Why Relationships Matter in Surrogacy
Surrogacy is rooted in emotions even more than medical milestones. Addressing feelings of grief, anxiety, vulnerability, hope, and tentative joy that emerge across the process requires a foundation of trust and rapport nurtured from the start between the surrogate and intended parents
Productive conflict resolution also hinges on mutual empathy nurtured over time, especially when tough decisions or priority conflicts surface. Everyone must rally around a shared dream that can only be realized through consistent teamwork.
Surrogates change people’s lives when they say “yes” to carrying a baby for someone else. But the inverse is also true – intended parents forever change a surrogate’s life after entrusting the wellbeing of their unborn child to her care. Commitments this personal deserve reverence.
Surrogates report one of the most meaningful rewards discovered is the depth of relationships they establish with intended parents over 12-plus months of highs and lows. Those bonds often persist lifelong.
Setting Expectations on Relationships
Alignment between both parties on exactly what type of relationship they mutually seek—and how that interaction will flow across key phases—establishes common expectations from the start. Questions for all to ponder include:
How often will we connect and through what channels?
What topics or milestones warrant more urgent sharing versus routine updates?
​Should we plan to meet in-person or engage virtually?
What level of relationship continuity beyond birth feels comfortable long-term?
With fundamental expectations anchored upfront, the focus pivots to nurturing a relationship built upon trust and empathy versus getting distracted by tactical communication or anxiety stemming from uncertainty between both parties.
Now let’s tackle perhaps the most frequently researched dimension for prospective surrogates - compensation.
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Surrogate Pay and Benefits
Surrogacy involves significant commitment across nearly a year of a surrogate’s life. The demands and risks she shoulders warrant just pay and benefits to demonstrate appreciation while also creating needed security for her family.
But compensation norms and structures vary widely in surrogacy, making the right agency partner essential for securing the surrogate's best interests. Nascency leads this crucial area with our unprecedented All-In Care and Compensation program for surrogates.
Surrogacy Pay Philosophy
Most surrogates decide to give the incredible gift of life to intended parents not for money, but certainly not for free. Compensation demonstrates intended parents’ deep gratitude while offsetting real costs in time and activities a surrogate must surrender while pregnant. Earnings also enable surrogates to cover existing obligations without financial stress during this intensive chapter.
At Nascency, our pay philosophy recognizes that surrogates change lives. We believe they should be generously rewarded for introducing peace and possibility where grief and uncertainty once festered for those yearning to parent. Surrogates directly enable the miracle of family and deserve every form of support.
Range of Compensation in Surrogacy
Typical compensation paid to a surrogate ranges from $35,000 to $55,000 on average in the U.S. when combining fees, milestone-based payments, and reimbursements she receives across the full surrogacy journey of 12-plus months. However, earnings scale higher based on factors like a surrogate’s specialty experience requested by intended parents or within more expensive markets for healthcare.
First-time surrogates under age 30 tend to earn compensation toward the lower end of that range. Surrogates over age 35 or those with 10-15 years of experience and many journeys completed command higher compensation, reflecting their specialized capabilities.
Elements of Surrogacy Pay Packages
While base pay is essential, reputable agencies also incorporate bonus opportunities, reimbursements for actual expenses incurred, and creativity into their overall compensation approach for surrogates:
Base Pay – The guaranteed fees earned as milestones hit
Reimbursements – Out-of-pocket costs during screening, travel, maternity needs, etc.
Bonuses – Rewards tied to exceptional execution of the journey
Gifting – Surprises across the journey to delight and thank surrogates
Key Benefits Beyond Pay
An agency invested in the surrogate’s entire wellbeing also funds access to specialized expertise and tailored social support lacking otherwise:
Legal Consultation – Custom guidance for protecting the surrogate’s rights and interests before contracts get signed with intended parents as well as across any conflicts that emerge Insurance Review & Access – Surrogates gain their own insurance able to override limited or complicated coverage via their existing health plans
Emotional Support – Confidential counseling assistance is available from professionals able to relate to the unique mental and emotional aspects of surrogacy Mentorship Network – The agency connects fellow surrogates who ‘have been there’ across past journeys to provide invaluable listening and lessons learned
Between compensation philosophies grounded in appreciation and benefits delivering security across all facets of need, surrogates find everything required to tackle their journeys with calm and confidence.
Now that you’ve got the complete picture on typical pay and perks surrogates enjoy, let’s look at the incredible track record of success agencies achieve across their surrogate journeys.
Surrogacy Success Rates: How Often Surrogacy Works
Any woman exploring becoming a surrogate will naturally question what percentage of journeys successfully result in the births of healthy babies. Industry norms and clinic performance offer insights.
Surrogacy cycle statistics affirm it as the most effective solution today for challenged fertility, enabling success rates for live births between 75% - 95% across just 1-3 embryo transfers.
Let’s look closer at industry benchmarks.
Surrogacy Pregnancy Success Metrics
Two crucial milestones must be sequentially achieved for a surrogate to deliver a baby. First pregnancy must be achieved, then that pregnancy must advance without complications for a full term delivery. Different metrics apply:
Pregnancy Rates After embryos get transferred, pregnancy rates reflect the percentage of cycles where implantation is ultimately confirmed initially by a positive pregnancy test around week 5 post transfer, then presence of a fetal heartbeat via ultrasound. Pregnancy rates typically range 35-45% across a single frozen embryo transfer cycle.
Delivery Rates The second benchmark for surrogacy success is delivery rates specifying live births as a percentage of all transfers. This metric quantifies how often embryo transfers to a gestational carrier ultimately produce babies now being raised by intended parents. Delivery rates range from 75%-95% based on fertility clinic, surrogate age, embryo quality, and other variables.
Surrogacy Journeys span too long with emotions far too extreme to risk partnering with clinics boasting anything but the highest benchmarks for producing healthy surrogate pregnancies and live births. Nascency exhaustively vets every U.S fertility center we trust for intended parents.
Now that you understand success rates affirm surrogacy as a proven path to parenthood for those in need, let’s balance that with realistic perspectives on risks that could surface across the journey.
Surrogacy Risks and Challenges
Surrogacy is not a simple 9-month process that enables selfless heroism. who over-romanticize it may overlook the real challenges involved. While surrogacy can be rewarding, it requires navigating many demands first.
Prospective surrogates owe it to themselves and loved ones to deliberately reflect on the challenges ahead across medical, emotional, lifestyle and legal dimensions:
Medical Unknowns
Despite extensive screening, pregnancy inherently carries uncertainty. While rare, surrogates remain susceptible to complications like hypertension, gestational diabetes or preeclampsia creating health threats. Guidance navigating prenatal diagnostics around genetic anomalies is also imperative.
Emotional Ambiguity
The joy of enabling life for those in need contends with the anguish of separating from that baby after delivery as a surrogate. Equally intense bonding, jealousy, guilt, grief and regret can surface and require management. Confidential counseling assists surrogates sorting through complex feelings.
Navigating Parenthood
Family Sacrifice Partners make immense compromises given most surrogates are actively parenting their own young children while pregnant again. Demands on mom stint attention towards little ones already requiring so much. Grandparents often help bridge gaps despite their own mixed emotions around risks their daughters now face.
Balancing Surrogate Duties
Lifestyle Disruption Routines get suspended by early morning medical oversight appointments, unfamiliar medications and their side effects, expanded midsection, bed rest orders and eliminated exercise options. Patience wears thin trying to balance surrogate duties with “regular” mom jobs
Career Impacts
High-risk pregnancy nature alongside more frequent prenatal visits often requires surrogates minimize hours, leverage employer flexibility to the max or take leaves. Lost wages or jeopardizing growth opportunities are byproducts of making another family priority.
Legal Vulnerabilities
Rare but serious conflicts between legal teams have potential to place a surrogate’s rights or access to care in jeopardy if contracts fail to offer airtight protections. Agencies invested in a surrogate’s best interests ensure attorneys eliminate her risks.
Women who become surrogates should enter eyes fully open to both wondrous and worrisome possibilities ahead, with assurance trusted experts will minimize chances of negative scenarios actually materializing.
Now let’s explore those reliable resources every surrogate can access.
Support Systems Available for Surrogates
Perhaps the most frequent question asked by prospective surrogates is “Who exactly will support me across this journey?” The village required to deliver an optimal experience is indeed vast. Nascency surrounds surrogates with specialized teams across all key facets of need.
Here is your complete support lineup:
Agency Team
At Nascency, your journey is managed by an assigned team focused explicitly on championing and safeguarding your best interests at every milestone. This tight-knit group rallies around you as their priority, advocates on your behalf, and commits to delivering an exceptional experience surpassing your expectations. Guidance interweaves both medical and emotional dimensions across the 12-month process.
Custom Legal Guidance
Contract negotiations introduce vulnerabilities without explicit safeguards memorializing your protections and rights. Nascency connects you with specialized legal support when vetting agreements prepared by intended parents’ attorneys seeking to confirm your best interests and payments are secured. Counsel remains on call should conflicts ever emerge requiring arbitration or intervention to defend you.
Tailored Clinical Care Teams
Your reproductive health across the IVF, pregnancy and postpartum phases relies upon assigned clinics and physicians fully accredited for high-risk pregnancies. Nascency qualifications ensure capable, compassionate care focused on you as their patient. Understanding doctors provide desired medical perspective but also respect preferences when tough decisions surface amid uncertainties.
Confidential Counseling
An inherent challenge as a surrogate is separating from the baby you deliver, despite no genetic ties. But even earlier emotions flare amid shifting hormones. Licensed therapists allow safe venting to unpack anxieties or guilt around strained dynamics with intended parents, partners or other children. Sessions remain private aside from insights you elect to share. We also share the opportunity to work with surrogate peer groups.
Family and Friends
Honest dialogue from the start allows your inner circle to offer informed opinions but also pledge their consistent encouragement as demands mount. But don’t assume support - ensure beloved ones feel sufficiently briefed, so they actively uphold you. Surrogacy without close confidants in the know is unnecessarily isolating.
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