Choosing a surrogate can feel overwhelming. After all, it’s a big responsibility to find the person who will carry your baby for nine months, and you want to be sure you can trust your surrogate with your most precious treasure.
The good news is that you can simplify this process by selecting an experienced surrogacy center. These agencies do the heavy lifting when it comes to enrolling surrogates. They use careful, evidence-based screening processes to ensure that the prospective surrogates presented to you are in the right place, both physically and emotionally, to give you a smooth, stress-free experience over the next nine months.
These are some of the things to look for as you determine whether a particular agency and a particular surrogate are right for you.
Prioritizing Your Voice
The first sign that a prospective surrogacy center will be successful in connecting you with the right surrogate is the initial application. Notice the types of questions you are answering. An agency that is focused on finding a good match wants to know what is most important to you, and that’s reflected in every interaction.
You should be asked to share your thoughts and feelings on a variety of issues relevant to the surrogacy process, as the best agencies need these details to find a surrogate that you feel comfortable with. When your voice is the top priority from the moment you start your application, you can be confident that your preferences will be carefully considered during the matching process.
Gestational Surrogacy vs. Traditional Surrogacy
Today, most intended parents choose gestational surrogacy over traditional surrogacy. The difference between the two is that with gestational surrogacy, the woman who carries the child has no biological connection. Embryos are transferred to the surrogate through IVF, which means one or both of the intended parents may have an opportunity to contribute genetic material. This has proven to be a more comfortable and legally-sound method of surrogacy for both surrogates and intended parents. (In fact, that is why California Surrogacy Center only offers gestational surrogacy services.)
Comprehensive Screening Methods
While the surrogate might not be the biological mother, her health is still critical for a successful pregnancy. That encompasses more than just basic physical conditions – it includes certain psychological and emotional factors, as well as lifestyle and environmental factors that are relevant to pregnancy.
For example, the best outcomes occur when surrogates aren’t struggling with drug use or certain financial issues, and a clean criminal background check is a must. Ideally, surrogates have already had at least one healthy pregnancy, and they must meet specific physical and mental health criteria.
Trying to collect this sort of information yourself is all but impossible. Even if you could, it changes the tone of your relationship with your surrogate. Instead of beginning in a place of openness, transparency, and trust, you must start by fact-checking the information your surrogate provides.
This is where your agency offers the biggest benefit. Much of the screening process is handled before you and a potential surrogate are matched. By the time you are introduced, you know your surrogate has already been thoroughly vetted, which means the only thing left to decide is whether you get along. That takes a huge amount of responsibility off of your shoulders, leaving the peace of mind that comes with knowing you can’t make a bad choice.
The bottom line is that most intended parents can do without the sort of stress that comes with trying to find the right surrogate. That’s what high-quality surrogacy centers are for. At California Surrogacy Center, for example, we handle much of the logistics behind the scenes, before you ever meet a prospective surrogate. By the time that first introduction occurs, your only concern is whether you and the candidate are compatible. If so, it’s just a few short months before you begin preparing for embryo transfer – and then the countdown to birth begins.
