The Surrogacy Journey

If you or you and your partner are thinking about starting the surrogacy journey, it can be helpful to know the different options available to you. Knowing how each kind works can help you decide what you want in a surrogacy situation. Since this is such a personal decision, you should always talk things over with your involved loved ones, too, before making a final choice.

Are you interested in becoming a surrogate mother or in communicating with a prospective surrogate mother about your interest in growing your family? These can be complicated legal matters and ones that can be assisted by hiring a knowledgeable surrogacy lawyer who understands the various laws in play and the best way to protect yourself regardless of how you came to discover surrogacy.

Gestational Surrogacy: What You Need To Know

Gestational surrogacy refers to a situation in which the surrogate is not related to the child being carried. This is the most common form of surrogacy arrangement today. This path to parenthood has helped numerous individuals and couples to grow their families and is also becoming more common. There are two types of gestational surrogacy: embryo transfer using both the sperm and egg from the couple, or donor eggs being combined with sperm from the male. In either case, the child is not biologically related to the surrogate mother. The surrogate mother is referred to as the gestational carrier. The embryo is instead created through IVF and then transferred to the surrogacy.

This might also be referred to as full surrogacy or host surrogacy. At least one intended parent is usually related genetically to the child whereas the surrogate is not. This makes gestational surrogacy one of the less complicated aspects, legally, when compared with other forms of surrogacy because second parent adoption or step parent adoption is not required.

Grow Your Family

Many people might consider using the method of gestational surrogacy to grow their family, including same-sex couples, people who have struggled with their own infertility journey, single parents who wish to grow their family without a partner, anyone who is unable to safely carry their own pregnancy to term or those parents who do not want a genetic link between the surrogate and the child. Consulting with a reputable surrogacy program is strongly recommended regardless of where you are at in your surrogacy journey.