Surrogacy has been helping families grow for centuries now. Through traditional surrogacy, the baby is conceived with the surrogate’s egg and the sperm of the intended parent or donor.
So what is gestational surrogacy?
With gestational surrogacy, the surrogate has no genetic relationship with the baby they deliver. An embryo created by the Intended Parent(s) through in vitro fertilization is transferred to a gestational carrier.
7 Reasons You Should Use an Agency For Your Surrogacy Journey
If you plan on starting your family through gestational surrogacy, working with an agency makes the surrogacy process more manageable. A professional agency like Hawaii Surrogacy Center provides the following support:
- Education and Consultation: When Intended Parents contact our agency, we explain the entire surrogacy journey in great detail. This includes information about insurance, legal processes, and how much one should expect to financially invest. There are so many parties involved in surrogacy. We know you will have questions throughout the process, and we’re here to help!
- Comprehensive Surrogate Screening and Matching: All gestational carriers in our program have already completed background checks, a medical records review, lifestyle screening, a credit check and complete psychological evaluation. We only send profiles of gestational carriers that have completed our comprehensive screening process and match your preferences well. We will facilitate a meet-up so you can get to know your prospective surrogate better. If everyone is comfortable, we consider you an official match.
- Referrals to the Best Clinics: If you don’t already have a fertility clinic, we’ll help you find a reputable clinic based on your location and needs. Hawaii Surrogacy Center has a close working relationship with every clinic in the State of Hawaii, as well as several premiere fertility clinics on the mainland.
- Legal Support: Your Gestational Carrier Agreement is the contract that you enter with your surrogate. This contact clearly outlines expectations of each party in the process and all financial obligations. As an agency, we arrange for separate, independent attorneys to work with you and your gestational carrier. These attorneys are experts in the specialized area of family and reproductive law.
- Independent Escrow: The perks of working with an agency is our connection to independent escrow agencies. It is essential that your financial investment in the surrogacy process is carefully protected. We work closely with a licensed, bonded and insured professional escrow agency that specializes in surrogacy. We have dedicated account managers that provide transparent and accurate accounting, ensure compliance with contract terms, and guarantee that your gestational carrier receives her compensation on time.
- Presence throughout the Pregnancy: We are with you every step of the way, including transfer day and ultrasounds after pregnancy confirmation! We make sure that agency representatives are present during appointments. This is especially key for our international Intended Parents who count on us to send them updates, pictures and videos.
- Parental Rights and Birth: As an agency, we’ll help you create a birth plan that supports everyone’s needs. One of our representatives will be with you during and after the birth to make sure everything goes smoothly. We also help with the paperwork to ensure you go home with your baby and that parental rights are properly established post-birth.
Independent Surrogacy
It’s understandable that some individuals and couples simply can’t afford to hire a surrogate agency to handle the surrogacy process. For such people, independent surrogacy might be the only other viable alternative they have if they really want a baby.
The best way to describe this kind of surrogacy is that the process is controlled by the intended parents and perhaps the surrogate without intervention from a surrogacy agency. It’s up to the interested parties to negotiate the surrogacy agreement, have the contract created, and manage the process to fruition. The primary advantage associated with this option is affordability. At the absolute least, the agency’s fee can be eliminated.
Management of the process typically includes the following tasks:
- Hiring a lawyer to draw the contract
- Hiring of a fertility clinic to handle the in vitro fertilization process
- Hiring of doctors to oversee the surrogate’s health and pregnancy process
- Locating a hospital for the delivery
- Creating an escrow account to control the funds intended for the surrogate
It’s important to note this is not a good option for first-time intended parents and surrogates. The legalities and intricacies of the process demand that someone with surrogacy experience be in charge of managing it. Short of having the necessary experience, there is a possibility the interested parties could run into issues with which they don’t know have to deal.
If the interest parties have adequate experience, they should still proceed with caution.
Starting a family through gestational surrogacy is a journey. Hawaii Surrogacy Center wants to be there for you, every step of the way. For more information about Intended Parent support, head over to our website at: https://hawaiisurrogacy.com/intended-parents/
