There are many steps to a successful surrogacy, but perhaps one of the most important is knowing how to find a surrogate mother who’s perfect for you and your surrogacy goals. After all, this will be the woman you’re partnered with throughout the surrogacy process, sharing an intimate journey that will forever change both of your lives.
But if you’re seeking a gestational carrier, how do you find a surrogate that you can trust with this incredibly important process? Locating a gestational carrier on your own can be exceedingly difficult, not to mention risky, which is why American Surrogacy is here guide you through how to a find surrogate mother who may work with your surrogacy plan, leaving the final decision up to you and what feels right.
Our surrogacy specialists are always available to further discuss how to hire a surrogate mother based on your surrogacy goals if you give us a call at 1-800-875-2229(BABY). We know how important it is to find a gestational carrier that you’re comfortable working with, so we will help you every step of the way and make sure that finding your surrogacy partner is a stress-free process for you as an intended parent.
How Do I Find a Surrogate?
As an intended parent, you always have a right to decide how to get a surrogate mother for your surrogacy journey. If you’re wondering, “How do you find surrogates?” know there are a few paths you can take:
- With a matching professional, such as a surrogacy agency
- Through your fertility clinic or surrogacy attorney
- Online or with surrogacy classifieds
- Through networking with family and friends
Before you decide how to get a surrogate mother, certain requirements must be met. You should have grieved any infertility losses you’ve experienced and prepared yourself emotionally, physically and financially for the surrogacy process ahead. For more information on intended parent requirements, you can always contact our surrogacy specialists.
Our specialists can also answer all your questions about how to go about getting a surrogate mother. They can help you determine your goals and preferences for the entire surrogacy process (including your personal gestational carrier) and offer suggestions on which paths may be best for you.
How to Find a Surrogate Mother with American Surrogacy
American Surrogacy specializes in all areas of the surrogacy process, but perhaps the biggest reason why intended parents work with us is our effectiveness in helping them understand and guiding them through how to find a surrogate. Unlike other agencies, we provide exceptional matching and screening processes to make sure that when you locate a gestational carrier through our agency, you can trust that she is not only medically and psychologically approved to carry a baby but that she’s also a great match for your own situation. Finding a surrogate on your own can be a stressful process, but by working with us, we’ll handle all of the details to let you focus on deciding which surrogate is best for you.
Here’s how we help intended parents like you find the perfect gestational carrier:
Step 1: Find a Gestational Carrier with Our Surrogate Outreach Program
To help each intended parent quickly find a gestational surrogate who perfectly matches their preferences, American Surrogacy has several available surrogates in our database and many more ready to be screened that you can choose from.
One of the benefits of surrogacy over adoption is that intended parents usually don’t have to wait long for a match because we will likely already have multiple waiting surrogate candidates perfect for your situation. This means we take care of most of the process of how to find a surrogate mother for you!
We have more than 20 years of matching experience through our sister agency, American Adoptions. We’ve used this experience to craft a surrogate outreach program that consistently brings in potential surrogates to our agency. So, even if you are trying to find a gestational carrier and don’t see one that matches your preferences on our “available surrogates” page, we have a much larger database to choose from — and can even extend our outreach to find the perfect surrogate for you.
American Surrogacy is able to work with a variety of gestational surrogates because we:
- advertise nationally through various avenues, including online advertising, traditional advertising and more
- network with various attorneys, fertility clinics and social workers across the country
- offer many services to surrogates that are exclusive to American Surrogacy
- are often contacted by prospective surrogates through our adoption agency, American Adoptions
Thanks to these methods, American Surrogacy is well experienced in how to find a surrogate mother that meets your expectations in a way that’s easy for you.
How We Screen Every Surrogate Before They’re Presented to You
When you’re learning about how to hire a surrogate mother for your parenthood journey, you may be worried about trusting a stranger with your dreams of becoming a parent. Those concerns aren’t necessary with American Surrogacy, because all surrogates must pass an extensive background screening process before they can solidify a match with you and begin the surrogacy process.
American Surrogacy takes great care in completing this process thoroughly, to make sure that all of our surrogates are truly ready for the demands of carrying a child for another person and the intimate relationship they can expect for the next year or more.
Our extensive screening process asks surrogates to:
- meet our long list of requirements
- complete an initial application
- complete a self-disclosed social and medical history form
- visit an obstetrician to confirm fertility
- receive an in-home assessment from a licensed social worker
- receive a psychosocial evaluation from a licensed psychologist
- complete extensive background checks and screenings
When you begin the process of finding a gestational surrogate with our agency, you’ll already have the peace of mind that all carriers we present to you are ready to get started — physically, mentally and emotionally.
Of course, we ask our intended parents to complete their own screening process, as well. This allows our surrogates to have the same confidence in working with you as you will when working them. With both parties completing this screening before a match even occurs, we greatly increase the likelihood that a surrogacy match will be perfect for all involved — preventing any unnecessary delays in your parenthood journey.
The Role Intended Parents Profiles Play in How to Find a Surrogate
Once you have completed your own screening process, our media specialists will help you complete your Intended Parent Profile, which will be used to help you find a gestational carrier with our agency. Think of this as a brochure about you and your family, including pictures of yourselves, your home, your neighborhood, your pets, and your hobbies and interests. It will also include a letter written to any surrogate reading your profile, explaining what led you to surrogacy and how much you look forward to becoming parents through surrogacy. By giving surrogates the chance to get to know who you are before they even meet you, your journey of how to get a surrogate will involve less potential for a match disruption.
Step 2: Get to Know Your Surrogate Through a Conference Call
After you find a gestational carrier who also expresses interest in your intended parent profile, your surrogacy specialist will set up a conference call between you and her. This is your chance to solidify your surrogacy match by asking any questions you may have and confirming that you will be comfortable working with this woman for the next year or more. When you’re in this step, it’s unreasonable to expect you to sign a contract with a complete stranger — which is why we make sure you have the chance to get to know a prospective carrier before deciding whether or not move forward with this partnership.
Your surrogacy specialist will help you prepare for this conversation by giving you additional background about the surrogate’s preferences for surrogacy and by suggesting topics of conversation. She will also be available to help mediate this conversation. If you want, you can even meet your gestational carrier in person to make sure she’s the right partner for you!
Step 3: Solidify the Match with a Surrogacy Contract
If you are ready to move forward with this match after your conference call (and your gestational carrier has been medically screened and approved by your fertility clinic) your final step of how to hire a surrogate mother will be to sign a legal contract with the surrogate and her lawyer. This contract not only lays out expectations and responsibilities for each party moving forward but also addresses potential risks and liabilities — so that any unexpected events will have an established process for you to follow. You and your surrogate will both need separate lawyers, and your surrogacy specialist will help coordinate this legal process.
Once you’ve signed your surrogacy contract, your search process will be complete, and you’ll be ready to start the surrogacy medical process!
***
American Surrogacy takes great pride in helping both intended parents and surrogates find one another and ultimately create life’s most precious gift together. Please contact us any time to learn more about how to find a surrogate mother with American Surrogacy.