Surrogacy offers intended parents hope and a path to parenthood that they might not otherwise have. Whether you’ve walked through infertility or other challenges to building a family, all that melts away once you begin your surrogacy journey.
It is a deeply fulfilling process, but one that can feel overwhelming or confusing at first. That’s why it is helpful to spend some time getting to know the surrogacy process for intended parents. We’ll explain what you need to know from the initial consultation up until the moment you bring your baby home.
A Step-by-Step Look at the Surrogacy Process for Intended Parents
With gestational surrogacy, you’ll have the opportunity to share genetics with your baby through your egg and/or sperm used in the in vitro fertilization process for your gestational carrier.
The process has careful and clear oversight from medical and legal professionals, as well as counselors or those equipped to help you walk through the emotional aspects of surrogacy.
Take a look at the step-by-step process you can expect once your surrogacy journey is underway.
1. Initial Research and Consultation
The earliest beginnings of a surrogacy journey often look different for various intended parents. But most start with researching legal requirements and local surrogacy agencies who can help oversee the process.
In this phase, intended parents are also reviewing timelines, costs, and expectations. You’ll meet with professionals so you can learn crucial information, such as:
- Surrogacy options and requirements
- Fertility needs evaluations and medical history review
- Financial considerations
- The chance to ask questions to get a better feel for everything
This stage helps intended parents build a strong foundational understanding of what to expect and helps ensure a smooth process with minimal anxiety or apprehension for intended parents.
2. Detailed Planning
Once you decide that surrogacy is the right pathway to parenthood for you, it’s time to build your professional team.
If you choose a quality surrogacy agency, it will help you build that team directly so you have a single point of contact. Otherwise, you might be working to assemble a variety of professionals prepared to help you along the way, such as:
- A reproductive law attorney
- Fertility clinic
- Mental health professionals
You’ll begin the fertility treatments for egg retreival and fertilization if you haven’t already completed these steps.
Additionally, you’ll build a financial plan for how you’ll pay for the process. You have many surrogacy funding options, and will just need to evaluate what is right for you.
3. Selecting a Surrogate
When you work with a good agency, this part is mostly done for you once you answer a variety of questions about how involved you want to be in the pregnancy and expectations for your surrogate.
But you’ll get a chance to screen candidates to review their medical, psychological, and lifestyle compatibilty with your goals. You can meet with potential matches to ensure the right fit.
This is an important step in the journey because you want to build a trusting relationship with your surrogate so you can enjoy clear, honest communication throughout the process.
4. The Legal Agreement
Now that you have many pieces in place for your surrogacy journey, you’re ready to enter into legal contracts that protect both you and the surrogate. This contract should clearly outline:
- Parental rights
- Financial agreements
- Medical decisions
- Pregnancy expectations
You should review the legal agreement carefully and ask questions about anything that is not clear.
This process takes place before embryo transfer to ensure legal protections from the start. It’s also important to note that surrogacy laws vary by state so where you engage in surrogacy services does matter.
5. Embryo Transfer
With legal agreements in place, you’re ready to proceed to the embryo transfer. The surrogate will begin a medical protocol that prepares her body for implantation.
Once the medication protocol is complete, the surrogate will go to a fertility clinic to complete the embryo transfer. Then comes the waiting game where you have to see if the pregnancy takes.
The surrogate returns to the fertility clinic to confirm the pregnancy via blood tests and ultrasounds. A successful pregnancy moves the surrogacy journey onto the next phase of the process.
6. Pregnancy
A coordinated team of professionals oversees this process, but don’t worry, you’ll stay actively involved throughout the pregnancy based on what’s outlined in your legal agreement with the surrogate. But this often includes attending pregnancy appointments with the surrogate and staying in close contact for updates.
During this phase, the surrogate will attend regular prenatal visits to check on the health of the carrier and the baby.
You’ll have many months to begin preparing for your baby, including preparing a nursery or enjoying a baby shower.
7. Welcoming Your Baby
After months of planning and great anticipation, everything culminates in the birth of your child. Based on your legal agreements, you might attend the birth or be welcomed to the hospital shortly thereafter.
In some states, you’ll have legal parenthood automatically, while in others you’ll go through a post-birth process. In California, where Accel Conceptions operates, you’ll have legal parenthood from the baby’s birth.
Now you begin caring for your newborn and transitioning into the joys of parenthood. Take a moment to celebrate the occasion as you’ve completed a long, emotional journey.
How Long Does the Surrogacy Process Take?
The journey is slightly different for various intended parents. But on average, you can expect the surrogacy journey to take 15-24 months from the initial stages to birth.
While that might sound lengthy, you don’t want to skip any steps or scale back on the legal agreements or surrogacy selection process as these will be crucial to your overall experience. Your goal should be a safe, ethical, and successful experience with no question marks on your parental rights.
The sooner your get the process started, the sooner you can hold your tiny bundle of joy and realize your dreams of becoming a parent.
Schedule a consultation with Accel Conceptions now to begin your surrogacy journey.