Surrogacy like any other specific niche has its own terminology, that might be not understandable for the intended parents who are just making their first steps on the surrogacy path. We hope that the explanations below will clear your head and give the proper navigation through the bulk of unfamiliar terms
Surrogacy guide
When embarking on a surrogacy journey it’s highly significant for IPs to feel safety and confidence in their future success. These feelings can be achieved thanks to a helpful guide World Center of Baby prepared for you with the aim to ease your struggles and offer a guided and easy-to-follow path to the family of your dreams.
In this guide you will find out:
“standard pack” of the most common surrogacy terms
different types of surrogacy and the benefits of each
which female is fit to become a surrogate mother
benefits of referring to a surrogacy agency
Basics of surrogacy glossary
General surrogacy terms
Intended Parent (IP) - a legal parent of a baby born to a surrogate mother (gestational carrier). The intended parents’ names are stated on the birth certificate if the chosen surrogacy destination has a proper law framework.
Gestational carrier - when we speak about surrogate mothers, almost everyone comes up with a definition in their heads. But who is a gestational carrier? It’s the same surrogate mother notion but concerning gestational surrogacy, which implies that a surrogate and the baby have no genetic or biological link with each other.
Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) - it’s an umbrella term for various treatment strategies, aiming at overcoming or avoiding infertility. ART includes in-vitro fertilization (IVF), frozen embryo transfer (FET), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and other methods.
Surrogacy services
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) - it’s a popular branch of assisted reproductive technologies which assumes the procedure of egg retrieval from ovaries, fertilization in the laboratory where an egg is combined with sperm, and then embryo transfer to the women’s uterus. This technology helped a lot of intended parents combat infertility issues and reach the family of their dream.
Egg/sperm donor - it’s a person, that gives consent for donating their own eggs/sperm in order to help infertile intended parents realize their dream of having a child. This biomaterial is further used for the IVF cycle.
PGD & PGS - PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) is an important clinical procedure that aims at detecting and eliminating possible genetic diseases in the future baby at the embryonic stage. Whereas PGS (or in other words preimplantation genetic screening) is significant medical testing that specifically monitors if there’s an abnormal number of chromosomes in embryos.
Juridical surrogacy terms
Surrogacy Agreement - it’s a legally obtained contract between two parties of a surrogacy journey (intended parents and the surrogate mother). This document aims at clarifying all terms and conditions of a surrogacy arrangement as well as parental rights over a newborn.
Pre-Birth Order (PBO) - In some countries, a legal document that establishes parental rights over a baby, prior to his birth, is a pre-birth order. It’s issued by the court and usually intended parents obtain it during the 2nd/3rd trimester of pregnancy.
Exit Process - after you received your baby, there’re still a few legal aspects that you should deal with. The exit process is a final step of your surrogacy journey which implies issuing post-birth order or/and birth certificate and finalizing parental rights over a child.
General surrogacy terms
Surrogacy services
Juridical surrogacy terms
Both procedures are highly beneficial since they establish a possibility for IPs to receive a totally healthy baby from a genetic perspective.
In terms of reproductive technologies, all of these services are essential. So if you were thinking about beginning your surrogacy journey, feel free to complete a brief questionnaire below and get in touch with our manager.
Types of surrogacy and their main distinctions
Since surrogacy is a fast-evolving sphere that welcomes advancements and adjusts to the current society, there are several surrogacy directions you may opt for. Below you may find a brief yet informative outline of the most popular surrogacy types.
Traditional surrogacy
This type of surrogacy for a long period of time was probably the only way for intended parents to fulfill their dream of a growing family. The essence of traditional surrogacy is as such: for embryo creation of a future child, the surrogate mother’s eggs are used, meaning that the newborn and the surrogate will be genetically related.
Traditional surrogacy might be a good choice for single and gay male IPs as well as those couples who have joined the surrogacy path with a surrogate, biologically related to one of the IPs.
Gestational surrogacy
In contrast to traditional surrogacy, gestational one gained a lot of attention and trust among the IPs since the surrogate mother isn’t related biologically to the child. The surrogate acts as a baby carrier, but the biomaterial used for the embryo creation purely belongs to the intended parents, making them indeed genetic parents of their future kid.
In case the intended parent cannot produce healthy biomaterial, they may opt for egg/sperm donation, and the resulting embryo will be implanted in the surrogate’s uterus, still having zero biological relation with her.
Compensated surrogacy
Commercial or compensated surrogacy assumes that the surrogate receives additional payment for her services apart from expenses during pregnancy. Also, in such a type of surrogacy, intermediaries get paid too for finding an appropriate surrogate and matching her with IPs.
Not every country supports the mindset behind compensated surrogacy, thus there is an alternative established to a paid surrogacy.
Altruistic surrogacy
Being opposite to commercial surrogacy, an altruistic one means that there are no extra payments for surrogates upon their standard medical expenses.
Some people might debate whether commercial and altruistic surrogacy types are ethical enough to implement in IPs’ lives. Still, there’s quite a vague line between these two approaches, meaning that the key factor in surrogacy remains the same: to regulate the relationship between surrogates and intended parents in an equal and comfortable way for both parties.
If you dream about having a baby and hesitate about which surrogacy type is the most suitable for your needs and capabilities, please fill out the form below and our expert will have a chance to consult you on this topic.
Surrogate mother requirements
When you decide to embark on a surrogacy journey, it’s a life-changing experience for you and the surrogate you’re matched with. Therefore, it’s highly essential for intended parents to be sure that the chosen surrogate is a healthy, reliable, and willing female that will offer a miraculous gift of parenthood to them.
It’s completely natural to face a lot of pressing questions on the way to selecting an appropriate surrogate mother. In spite of the surrogate compassion and enthusiasm, they still have to fit into particular requirements so as to serve this honorable mission of birth-giving for the sake of others.
Surrogate prerequisites may vary from clinic to clinic, but they are all concerned with such qualifications as:
- the age of a female (generally older than 21 and younger than 40);
- normal body mass index (to avoid extreme slimness and obesity which might affect pregnancy);
- at least one healthy pregnancy and childbirth behind your back without complications;
- no smoking & drinking habits as well as drug usage;
- no criminal record.
More than that, after meeting these basic requirements, surrogate candidates will have to undergo physical and psychological screenings to ensure that they’re healthy enough to carry a baby for intended parents and emotionally prepared to overcome any potential mental challenges on their way.
So after the surrogate passes this round of monitoring and testing, you as an IP may be confident that safe and successful child delivery is looming on your life’s horizon.
Why should you opt for a surrogacy agency?
When you decided to realize your dream of parenthood through surrogacy, the next important decision you have to make is whether to follow an independent surrogacy path or to entrust your heartful wish for receiving a child to a surrogacy agency.
We kindly advise referring to a proven and reliable surrogacy agency, especially when you are just making your first steps in a complicated surrogacy universe since it will be much easier to accomplish your final goal with proper guidance and professional support.
So what are the benefits of surrogacy agencies for intended parents?
Choose a surrogacy agency with a multisided approach
However, there’s a stumbling block when choosing a surrogacy agency for your journey. Some of the organizations are dedicated to catering to the needs of LGBT intended parents only, other clinics devote themselves to making dreams of growing families come true only for single parents. The ideal variant for you is to choose a flexible surrogacy agency that welcomes all intended parents despite their gender or marital status.
For instance, World Center of Baby perceives each of the IPs' background stories as a unique one and by means of an individual approach offers a suitable solution without the dependency on a particular country's surrogacy regulation. Such a strategy enables us to lead both heterosexual, same-sex couples, and single intended parents to the family of their dreams.
We sincerely hope that this informative and multisided guide was of great help to you and shed the light on significant surrogacy aspects.
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