Top 5 Things to Look for in a Surrogate
What intended parents should consider when choosing a surrogate
What should the intended parents look for in a surrogate? Surrogacy is a huge decision and investment. As an intended parent, you trust your future baby’s health and care to your surrogate during the pregnancy. In addition, surrogacy can form a uniquely special bond between the intended parents and the surrogate. For these reasons, it’s important to choose the best possible candidate. Read on for the top 5 things to look for in a surrogate.
Age: How Old Is Your Surrogate?
The goal of a surrogacy is to provide a healthy pregnancy and delivery. In general, the risks of complications during pregnancy increase with age. Choosing a surrogate between 21-42 years old maximizes the chances of a successful, easy pregnancy.
Look for a Surrogate with a Clean Health History
To carry a healthy baby, your surrogate should be healthy as well. It’s important to rule out candidates with any health conditions that can affect pregnancy. Also, to become a surrogate, candidates should have had at least one child of their own already, with no complications during pregnancy or delivery. That way, the surrogate has a sense of how pregnancy affects them and what to expect. In terms of overall health, mental health also matters for surrogates. Any pregnancy, but especially surrogacy, involves a lot of different emotions and considerations, and having good mental health helps navigate those feelings.
Surrogacy Requires Strong Communication Skills
Surrogacy involves so many logistics – emotional, financial, medical, physical – and clear communication and understanding is crucial. You’ll need to talk openly and honestly with your surrogate about contact during and after the pregnancy, compensation, special requests, overall values and preferences, labor and delivery details, and much more. Once you have agreed on a certain level of communication (for instance, weekly updates, or having the intended parents at important appointments), your surrogate needs to follow that agreement and communicate easily and clearly. When you meet with surrogate candidate, look for how they speak and if you have compatible communication styles.
Surrogates Need a Strong Support System
Surrogates provide an incredible and generous service. They offer a physical and emotional commitment to nurture a pregnancy and bring a child into the world for another family. While surrogacy can be incredibly rewarding, it can also take a lot of effort. Every surrogate needs a strong emotional support system and a stable living situation. Surrogates don’t have to have a spouse or a long-term partner; however, they do need solid relationships of some kind, whether romantic or not, to help support them through this unique experience.
Surrogacy Is a Unique Responsibility
When you choose a surrogate, you entrust them with your baby’s life. This is a significant responsibility, and your surrogate must fully understand and embrace this role. Qualified surrogates should take care of themselves through rest, nutrition, exercise, and common sense. They must be committed to protecting your baby’s health and following medical advice to create the best outcome. Surrogates should be financially stable and ready to navigate their surrogate journey.
Eggceptional Fertility Looks for the Best Surrogates For You
All these criteria may seem overwhelming. Finding a qualified surrogate is a huge decision. Fortunately, at Eggceptional Fertility, we find the best and most qualified surrogacy candidates for you. We evaluate candidates’ health history, age, communication skills, living situation, and overall suitability for surrogacy. We then provide candidate options for our intended parents based on their compatibility. That way, you can meet with the candidates and base your decision on your connection and values. When you choose an Eggceptional surrogate, you start an exciting journey to parenthood, working with a compassionate, highly qualified surrogate. To begin your journey, contact us today.
