For those who don’t know, March is National Social Work Month, and we’re taking this chance to highlight the amazing work that our social workers do within American Surrogacy. Surrogacy is a practically and emotionally challenging process, and we are proud to count trained and certified social workers as some of the critical professionals that guide our intended parents and surrogates through this family-building process.

One of our most important social workers here at American Surrogacy is Angie Newkirk, who works with surrogates and intended parents through every step of their surrogacy journey. As program director, she oversees every surrogate and intended parent that comes through our agency and makes sure that their surrogacy process meets their personal surrogacy goals and needs.

Learn a little bit more about Angie below! And, to speak with her about American Surrogacy’s program, please call 1-800-875-2229(BABY).

Angie Newkirk, American Surrogacy Program Director

Professional Background:

LBSW-Licensed Bachelor of Social Work.

“I worked with American Surrogacy’s sister agency American Adoptions since 2000 and moved over to American Surrogacy in 2014.”

How I Got to Be with American Surrogacy:

“I live in Kansas City and, while with American Adoptions, worked with birth mothers placing their children for adoption. After five years of this, I began to work with adoptive families.  In 2014 I was asked to help build American Surrogacy. I was so excited for the opportunity to offer another way to create families.”

Why I Love Working with American Surrogacy:

“In this profession of adoption and surrogacy, you hear a lot of heartbreaking stories from people and their journey to become parents.  It astonishes me how far science has come and the opportunity available to families who choose to use a gestational carrier — whether with their own embryo or the use of an egg or sperm donor. By the time they get to me, they have had a long journey and just want to become parents; they don’t care how. While I have never experienced infertility, I have been in this field for over 15 years so I have seen and understand the struggle many people go through to become biological parents.

“Surrogates, like birth mothers, are completely unselfish. Each one I talk to loves being pregnant and almost always has a story of a family or friend who struggled to get pregnant. They want to be able to help people become parents or add to their family. I adore working with surrogates!”

A Little More About Me:

“I have two kids who are 9 and 12.  Most of my time is spent watching their activities such as baseball, basketball and soccer. I am a huge Royals fan and enjoy watching them play! In my spare time I enjoy binge watching a good drama on HBO or Netflix or curling up with a good book. In 2015, we rescued a 6-year-old dog who was abused and dumped, and I have been an avid dog lover ever since. I am very passionate about animal rescue, and as my kids get older and take up less of my time, I will volunteer for local rescue organizations.”

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We would like to thank Angie and all other social workers around the country, no matter what their field, for all of their hard work in helping people through difficult points in their lives and advocating for those who may not otherwise have a voice. American Surrogacy and our sister agency American Adoptions could not be possible without the loving assistance of these professionals.

Today, March 2, is Read Across America Day — and, to get in the spirit, we’ve gathered some of the best surrogacy books available to put on your reading list now and for months to come.

Whether you’re looking for books to share with your children or informational books to help you learn more about the surrogacy process, celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday with some suggestions below.

Surrogacy Books for Children

Books can be a great way to introduce the idea of surrogacy to children in an age-appropriate way. Here are some you may consider:

• The Very Kind Koala: A Surrogacy Story for Childrenby Kimberly Kluger-Bell
• Hope & Will Have a Baby: The Gift of Surrogacyby Irene Celcer
• The Kangaroo Pouch: A Story about Surrogacy for Young Childrenby Sarah Phillips Pellet
• Sophia’s Broken Crayons: A Story of Surrogacy from a Young Child’s Perspective by Crystal A. Falk
• Sacha, the Little Bright Shooting Star: The Story of Surrogacyby Sofia Prezani
• More Than Four by Katie Carone
• Wanted: A Journey to Surrogacy by Carolina Robbiano
• A Turtle’s Tale by Crystal Henry
• I Am Extra Special: 21st Century Guide to the Birds and the Bees by Bel Messer and Rosie Luik
• The Chicken Who Couldn’t Lay Eggs by Sabine de Brus and Taylor Brandon
• The Twin Kangaroo Treasure Hunt: A Gay Parenting Story by Carmen Martinez Jover
• Gal and Noah’s Daddies by Shosh Pinkas
• My Mom is a Surrogate by Abigail Glass

Surrogacy Books for Adults

If you’re looking to learn more about the surrogacy process, either as an intended parent or a prospective surrogate, you may consider these titles:

• United By Love: A Happy Adopted Child by Victoria Rikede
• Everything Conceivable by Liza Mundy
• Surrogacy: An Essential Guide to the Surrogacy Process, Surrogacy Costs and Finding a Surrogate Mother by Dianne Whitfield
• Successful Surrogacy: An Intended Parents’ Guide to a Rewarding Relationship with their Surrogate Mother by Susan MZ Fuller
• Labor of Love: Gestational Surrogacy and the Work of Making Babies by Heather Jacobson
• Planning Parenthood: Strategies for Success in Fertility Assistance, Adoption and Surrogacy by Rebecca A. Clark
• Pathways to Parenthood: The Ultimate Guide to Surrogacy by Stacy Ziegler
• Surrogacy Was the Way: Twenty Intended Mothers Tell Their Stories by Zara Griswold
• The Sacred Thread: A True Story of Becoming a Mother and Finding a Family – Half a World Away by Adrienne Arieff
• Considering Surrogacy by Lisa Oliver
• Bringing in Finn: An Extraordinary Surrogacy Story by Sara Connell
• IVF A Detailed Guide: Everything I Wish I Had Known Before Starting My Fertility Treatments by Bianca Smith
• IVF: A Patient’s Guide by Rebecca Matthews

Remember, if you ever want to learn more about surrogacy, you can talk to the specialists at American Surrogacy anytime. We can answer any questions you have about this family-building process and, when you’re ready, start you on a journey to meet your personal surrogacy goals.

Contact our agency today at 1-800-875-2229(BABY) or submit our online form here.

Here at American Surrogacy, we know that many intended parents come to us after facing challenges in their lives. Some of our intended parents have found themselves struggling with infertility after a fight that was their hardest yet: cancer.

We recognize that many intended parents pursue surrogacy or another family-building method because their own fertility has been compromised by previous battles with cancer and the debilitating treatments it requires. That’s why we’re joining with the Union for International Cancer Control to raise awareness of World Cancer Day this Sunday, Feb. 4.

This year’s campaign continues the theme of “We can. I can.” — which emphasizes the power everyone has to reduce the global burden of cancer. To do our part, we’re raising awareness of the effect that cancer has on many people who wish to become parents and face infertility struggles during or after cancer treatments.

Here are three things you need to know about how cancer can affect the fertility of intended parents:

1. While cancer in the reproductive organs can affect fertility, most fertility issues come from the treatments involved with cancer.

Although the drug therapies involved in treating cancer are very good at killing cancer cells, they also have the potential to kill other important cells as well (which is why most chemotherapies cause hair cells to die). Therefore, there is a potential that certain cancer-fighting drugs can damage a woman’s eggs or a man’s sperm production. You can view a list of the drugs that can cause the most potential damage here.

2. How cancer affects a person’s fertility depends on several factors.

While certain drugs do have a higher risk of affecting a man or woman’s fertility, there are several other things that determine loss of fertility during and after cancer. This includes:

• The age of the patient. For example, women who are treated before they are 35 have the best chance of becoming pregnant after treatment.
• The steps taken to preserve fertility. A woman’s eggs can be frozen before cancer treatments in case the drugs she takes damage her eggs and ovaries beyond recovery.
• The time from treatment to becoming pregnant. Women who have had chemotherapy before puberty or young women whose menstrual periods begin again after chemo are at risk for early menopause. However, if a woman gets pregnant too soon after her treatments, she has a higher risk of miscarriage or carrying a baby with genetic problems.
• The type of cancer. Cancer of the reproductive organs may require removal of or surgery on those organs, which often causes infertility for both men and women.

3. Fertility outlooks for young people with cancer are better than ever.

The good news is that men and women diagnosed with cancer have a better chance of having a child naturally than ever before in the past. Today, women diagnosed with cancer are presented with fertility preservation techniques like egg-freezing to make it more likely that they can have a biological child later on in their life, either through their own pregnancy or through a method like surrogacy.

When a young woman is diagnosed with cancer, her oncologist will often discuss her options for preserving her fertility at the same time that they discuss possible cancer treatments. Oncologists will often refer women to a gynecologist or reproductive endocrinologist for more information on preserving their fertility before they begin their chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Some good news: One study revealed that of the women who became pregnant after their cancer treatments, the rate of miscarriage and stillbirth was comparable to women who had not battled cancer.

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Those who are interested in the effect of cancer on fertility should always speak to a medical professional for more information, especially if the question pertains to their own fertility. Know that if you cannot have a biological child on your own, the specialists at American Surrogacy are always available to talk to you about your family-building options and help you achieve your dream of having a biologically related child.

To help spread awareness of World Cancer Day, share information about the campaign with your friends and family through social media, word of mouth and more. Sharing this blog post is a good place to start.

With a little bit of help from everyone, we can work towards eradicating these diseases that bring pain to so many, especially those wishing to become parents.

For years, intended parents and surrogates who live in New York have been forced to decide: Do they complete a surrogacy in their home state, where surrogacy contracts are unenforceable and compensation is illegal, or do they look to a different state to make their surrogacy dreams come true?

New developments from the state’s Health Department’s Task Force on Life and Laws indicate this dilemma may not exist for much longer.

In December, the state task force issued a recommendation that New York do away with its decades-old ban on commercial surrogacy. The recommendation cited cultural changes and advances in reproductive medicine science — like the use of in vitro fertilization in gestational surrogacy — as an encouragement to legalize this modern family-building process. Soon after the recommendation’s announcement, the National Infertility Association issued a statement in support.

The movement toward legalizing gestational commercial surrogacy has been building for a long time in the New York legislature. In 2012, a bill called the “Child-Parent Security Act” was introduced that would allow surrogacy arrangements for surrogates with no genetic relationship to the child they carry. However, this bill stalled in both houses of the state legislature.

The recommendation has its critics from the task force, and what will happen from here is still up in the air. Most likely, the aforementioned surrogacy bill will be introduced again into the legislature, to be debated on in roundtable discussions.

In the meantime, stay up to date on the most recent developments, and always speak with a New York surrogacy attorney if you are interested in the current state of surrogacy laws there.

If you are interested in learning more about the surrogacy process in a surrogacy-friendly state, the specialists at American Surrogacy can answer your questions and help you connect with an intended parent or surrogate in one of those states. Please contact our surrogacy agency at 1-800-875-2229(BABY) to start your surrogacy process today.

Today is World Prematurity Day, a day to recognize and raise awareness about the severity of preterm births around the world. As a surrogacy agency that deals with the birth of children on a regular basis, American Surrogacy takes this subject very seriously and wants to make sure all of our prospective surrogates and intended parents know the truths about preterm birth.

Our surrogacy specialists and the fertility clinics and obstetricians we work with take important steps to reduce the likelihood that any children born through our program are preterm. We know just how hard intended parents and surrogates work to bring a baby into the world, so we will always do our best to keep everyone involved in the process safe — especially the baby at the center.

The March of Dimes is leading this year’s World Prematurity Day awareness campaign, and we encourage you to join in as well. Like the movement on Facebook and visit its website to receive information throughout November on lifesaving research, treatments and community support for those affected by premature births. Change your profile picture to a World Prematurity Day one, post a message of support today and use the hashtags #givethemtomorrow and #worldprematurityday. When we all come together to spread awareness and hope, we can take great steps toward reducing the number of babies who start their lives in serious medical distress.

As part of the mission to raise awareness about premature babies, we’ve collected some of the most important facts you need to know:

1. About 380,000 babies are born prematurely in the U.S. each year.

A premature birth is any birth that occurs before 37 weeks of pregnancy. It can happen to any woman, and the reasons behind premature births vary widely. The March of Dimes campaign funds research to help determine these causes and prevent more premature births from occurring.

2. Last year, the U.S. preterm birth rate worsened for the first time in eight years.

Overall, the United States earned a “C” grade for premature birth rates in 2016, based on the March of Dimes’ research. Key to this is the widening differences in prematurity rates across different races and ethnicities. The rates also vary across states; whereas Virginia has the lowest rate of 9.2 percent preterm births, Mississippi has a rate of 13 percent. You can view your state’s grade and report card here.

3. Preterm birth rates vary widely based on race and ethnicity.

In the U.S., black women give birth to preterm babies at a rate of 13.3 percent — a huge difference from Asian-Americans, who prematurely give birth at a rate of 8.5 percent. That means that the preterm birth rate among black women in the U.S. is 48 percent higher than the rate among all other women. These racial and ethnicity disparities also vary by state.

4. Premature births cost the U.S. $26.2 billion each year.

Babies born prematurely require additional medical and practical assistance that ends up taking a financial toll on not only parents, but schools, hospitals and the government. For example, premature births result in an additional $16.9 billion in medical and health care costs for babies and $1.9 billion in labor and delivery costs for mothers per year. About $1.1 billion must be paid for special education services for children with lasting effects from a premature birth.

5. Premature babies are subject to all kinds of life-threatening conditions.

In addition to being born before they’re ready to survive outside of the womb on their own, premature babies are more likely to develop many life-threatening complications, including:

• Anemia
• Apnea
• Persistent pulmonary hypertension
• Hypoglycemia
• Jaundice
• Sepsis
• And more

The world of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is incredibly stressful — and that unfortunately doesn’t always help these fragile babies. Many babies who are in the NICU can develop dangerous complications quickly as their medical status changes without warning. Medical complications aren’t the only lasting impact; the families of those babies born early are in constant stress over the health of their baby and often fall into financial distress, as well.

The good news is that there are organizations like the March of Dimes working to help reduce and prevent the likelihood that babies are born prematurely. With their help, physicians can use their research to hopefully begin saving more lives and creating a healthier pregnancy and birthing experience for all.

Get involved by sharing this article or the campaign on your social media accounts or donating to the March of Dimes today.