Making the decision to expand your family, through surrogacy, is a life-changing one. Before taking this important step, you need to know the timeframe and the framework that your journey will follow. To simplify things, the surrogacy process can be summarized in 5 steps:
Research and consultation with your surrogacy agency
Two-way matching process with a surrogate partner
Completion of medical and legal procedures
Pregnancy and birth
Exit process and return home
1. Consulting with a surrogacy agency
• Agency consultation
• Introductory video call or in-person visit • Matching with your egg donor
• Signing your agency agreement
Selecting an agency to assist you is your first priority in commencing a journey and one which requires due diligence and much research.
Be Parent insists on an in-person visit, or minimally, if distance is an obstacle, an introductory video call for a case assessment with our coordination team. Clicking with the people providing you support over the course of the next 10 months (and potentially over a year) is essential.
Our experienced staff provide an overview of the entire surrogacy process and inform about the upcoming steps you’ll be needing to take according to your individual program design.
At Be Parent, your team will consist of program coordinators and managers, an in- house lawyer, a program accountant and medical billing specialist. We will also
connect you with the best IVF clinic for your needs and customize options for the most successful surrogacy journey possible.
Should you already have embryos created, you’re ready to skip the next step and match with a surrogate partner. Should you be in need of embryos, we assist with donor selection, and manage the entire IVF process of ICSI embryo creation. You can factor approximately 2-3 months from the start of your registration until embryo outcome, depending on your particular needs and circumstances.
2. Matching with your surrogate partner
• Matching process and reciprocal approval
• Introductory meeting or video call with surrogate candidate • Official journey start
Matching with a surrogate partner is the first milestone in the surrogacy process. This consists of profile reviews, mutual approval and then introduction by way of an in-person meeting or video call. Our Be Parent surrogate coordinator ensures minimal wait time for the matching process and considers both surrogate and intended parent priorities and criteria for an optimal partnership.
Once a potential match has been identified, and both parties are in mutual agreement to set out on a journey together, introductions are organized either in- person or via video call. All communication, until birth and document completion, includes the mediation of Be Parent coordinators. We support relationship- building between intended parents and surrogate partners, as we believe that consistent connection assists in keeping your surrogacy journey on-track, and memorable for all.
3. Completion of medical and legal procedures
• Triple-screening of surrogate candidate • Contractual agreements
• Medication and protocol monitoring
• Frozen embryo transfer
• HCG / Pregnancy testing
The initial medical and legal phase of a journey, consists of several checkpoints. After passing Be Parent eligibility requirements, your surrogate carrier will meet with several qualified professionals to complete program screening measures. These include a psychological evaluation, a lifestyle home-visit, IVF training, a legal briefing and gestational, general health and infectious disease examinations.
As soon as she’s cleared the screening stage and has been approved for IVF treatment, your surrogate partner will be prescribed a course of fertility medication before embryo transfer. She will receive full training and will begin her medical protocol under the supervision of clinic staff. According to her cycle start, and her body’s response to the medication prescribed, she will be scheduled for embryo transfer at the correct medical time. She will attend your selected IVF clinic for transfer and return for pregnancy testing via blood draw 14 days later. Approximately 1-2 weeks later, upon confirmation of a fetal heartbeat, pregnancy is considered officially achieved.
In tandem, surrogate carriers and intended parents will be concluding their surrogacy contracts with Be Parent’s legal team. This process takes on average 1-2 weeks.
4. Pregnancy
• Scheduled ultrasound checks
• Establishment of parental rights • Preparing for delivery
• Birth
Pregnancy is the longest and most anticipated step of the surrogacy process. During the gestational period, our team and surrogate carrier will be providing updates on your baby’s growth and development in real time. By the10th week of pregnancy, your surrogate partner will be assigned to her own OBGYN where she will be closely monitored and supported. Routine prenatal screenings and scans are performed to ensure healthy and steady fetal growth and, by 20 weeks, baby’s gender can be revealed if desired.
Your surrogate partner’s psychological health is safe-guarded, alongside her physical health, and she has full access to all of Be Parent’s psychosocial resources during the prenatal and post-birth period.
Pregnancy is followed by the long-awaited delivery of your baby. Your surrogate partner will give birth at a choice maternity clinic and you will meet your baby as soon as medically permitted. If possible, intended parents can be present during delivery so as to share in the magic of birth!
5. Exit process
By 6 months of pregnancy, intended parents, with the help of our coordination team, begin to prepare the documents required by your particular embassy. Our legal team will provide all the necessary paperwork from our side, in order to save as much time as possible after birth for an efficient return home. While waiting for your baby’s passport, your personal coordinator will assist you to schedule post- natal paediatric appointments, as well as nanny support, if needed.
