How to Become a Surrogate?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the success rates for surrogate mothers are approximately 75 percent. That said, once the surrogate mother becomes pregnant, the success rate for a healthy birth rises to 95 percent! With that in mind, while surrogacy is not a guaranteed success, it is an effective family planning option in the vast majority of cases.

In order to ensure a high probability of success with a surrogate mother, it is a good idea for both the sperm donor and surrogate mother or egg donor to have thorough medical evaluations and meet rigorous fertility criteria.

Our fertility specialists at The New Hope Center for Reproductive Medicine have an excellent track record for providing safe and successful surrogate births, whether through traditional surrogacy or through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

There are two kinds of surrogacy, namely, traditional surrogacy and gestational surrogacy, also known as in vitro fertilization. As such, IVF is a type of surrogacy that differs from traditional surrogacy.

With traditional surrogacy, a woman is artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm by a fertility specialist. That woman then carries the developing fetus to full term and delivers the baby on behalf of the person or couple who will be the child’s legal parents. As such, a traditional surrogate mother is also the baby’s biological mother since their egg is used to conceive the baby.

With gestational surrogacy, or IVF, eggs are gathered from the mother, fertilized with the father’s sperm, and the embryo is placed into the gestational surrogate’s uterus. Thus, the woman who donates the eggs, in this case, is the biological mother, while the gestational surrogate is called the birth mother.

In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother will share DNA with the baby since it is the surrogate mother’s eggs that are used to conceive the baby. However, in gestational surrogacy, wherein the mother who will parent the child provides the eggs, the surrogate or birth mother will not share DNA with the baby.

One of the most common questions from surrogate mothers and couples who are considering surrogacy to have a child is how long they can expect the process to take. Not only is this a practical question for when to expect their lives to change, but it also makes complete sense for the prospective parents to be eager to see and hold their little one! With that in mind, there are several steps to the surrogacy process before that can happen.

The first step in the surrogacy process involves the application and initial consultation. It can take between one and two months for the application to be reviewed and the consultation to be scheduled.

After the consultation has been completed and a relationship between the prospective parents and the fertility specialist has been established, the next step is to find the right surrogate. This step can take between one and four months to find the right person.

After a surrogate has been chosen, there will be a surrogate screening to ensure the individual is physically and mentally fit to carry and deliver the child, followed by a legal process so that the surrogate mother understands her rights and for the prospective parents to verify and sign off on the contract. This step in the process typically takes between one and two months to complete.

If and when the surrogate screening and legal process are completed, the IVF procedure or surrogate insemination will occur. It can take between two and three months for successful treatment and results to come back.

If the IVF or insemination procedure is successful, the prospective parents will wait in anticipation alongside the surrogate mother for the birth to take place! This can happen between seven and nine months after the initial procedure. With that in mind, the surrogacy process typically takes between 12 and 20 months before the parents can see and hold their treasured baby. For a surrogate mother, the surrogacy process typically takes approximately 11 to 14 months.

For more information, please call us or book an appointment online. We serve patients from Virginia Beach VA, Rudee Heights VA, Lynnhaven VA, Linkhorn Estates VA and Dam Neck VA.