Starting your parenthood journey through surrogacy is a significant decision. Here, we guide you through each step, ensuring clarity and support as you move towards welcoming your child. Welcome to your surrogacy journey with us.
Considering Surrogacy for Your Family
There are many reasons to think about surrogacy: facing fertility challenges, members of the LGBTQ+ community wanting to start their family journey, or singles wishing to expand their families.
Before diving into surrogacy, it's important to understand what it entails. It requires financial and emotional commitment. Ensure you're prepared for the surrogacy process and for becoming parents.
If you're uncertain about surrogacy or want a deeper understanding, consider speaking to a therapist or surrogacy consultant before starting the process with PSED.
Planning Your Family with PSED
Thinking about surrogacy? Here are your steps:
- Choose between traditional or gestational surrogacy.
- Decide if you need donor sperm or eggs.
- Do you have a surrogate or need PSED's help to find one?
- Consider working with PSED for guidance throughout the process.
- Define your main goals for surrogacy.
After making your decisions, we'll start with screenings, including home evaluations and background checks. If you meet PSED's standards and need a surrogate, we'll help you find the perfect match.
Understanding Surrogacy Options:
- Traditional Surrogacy: The surrogate is genetically connected to the child. Her egg is fertilized with the sperm from the intended father or a donor.
- Gestational Surrogacy: The surrogate carries a child with no genetic connection. An embryo, created with the egg and sperm from the intended parents or donors, is implanted.
Choosing Your Surrogacy Support:
- Surrogacy Agency: Offers matching, guidance, counseling, and legal services.
- Surrogacy Attorney: Handles legal matters but might not provide additional services.
Matching with the Perfect Surrogate
Your surrogacy guide will help you define what you're looking for in a surrogate. You'll create a profile with photos and stories to help surrogates understand your family. Surrogates will do the same.
When you find a surrogate you resonate with, your guide will help set up initial meetings. A strong connection means moving on to the next phase of the journey.
Discovering Your Perfect Surrogacy Partner
The journey to find the right surrogate mother is crucial. If you have someone in mind, a reproductive attorney can help. Otherwise, a surrogacy agency can match you with the right person.
Once you work with a surrogacy specialist, you'll create a surrogacy plan. From this, profiles are made to introduce you to others on a similar journey. The agency matches profiles with similar goals. If there's a connection, you'll get to know each other better through calls or meetings. This relationship is confirmed with a legal agreement.
Understanding the Legal Steps
Once you and the surrogate decide to move forward, it's time for a legal agreement. Both of you will have separate lawyers to ensure everyone's rights are protected. Your lawyer will help you understand your rights, any potential issues, and how the payment to the surrogate will work. Once everything's agreed upon, you'll sign the contract, and the next steps of the surrogacy process can begin.
In the later stages, your lawyer will help you get recognized as the child's legal parents before the baby is born. This is called a "pre-birth order". It means you can make medical decisions for the child and your names will be on the birth certificate.
Understanding the Medical Steps of Surrogacy
Once the contract is in place, the medical part starts. Depending on your situation, the intended mother or an egg donor might take drugs to produce more eggs. Then, these eggs are collected in a simple procedure.
The collected eggs are then fertilized with sperm from the intended father or a donor. After a few days, the best embryos are chosen to be placed in the surrogate.
When the implantation is successful and there's a heartbeat, the surrogate begins her payment schedule. Throughout her pregnancy, your support will be important, making this a journey you go on together.
Welcoming Your Precious New Arrival
The culmination of your surrogacy journey is the deeply touching moment when your baby arrives. Often, you'll be right there in the hospital room, eagerly awaiting the baby's first cry.
When the baby is born and the surrogate is on her way to recovery, you'll begin your new journey with your little one. The bond you've established with the surrogate might blossom into a lifelong relationship as your child grows up. Through every step, the surrogacy agency stands by your side, ready to offer continued support and guidance.
