Surrogacy isn’t a concept that gets much public discussion. Yet, you’ll probably either know someone or know a secondary contact of someone who seeks out a surrogate mother at some point in their life. To better understand what they might be going through, or give yourself more options for the future, it pays to know the main reasons why couples choose to use surrogates.
First, we should clear up some misconceptions about how surrogate motherhood works. The exact legal process varies from state to state, but there are two main types of surrogacy to consider. In traditional surrogacy, a woman is artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm; she, the surrogate mother, then carries the baby to term and delivers it for the father and mother to raise. In this case, the surrogate mother is technically the biological mother of the baby.
There are also gestational surrogates. In this scenario, in vitro fertilization makes it possible to use the father’s sperm or donor sperm and the mother’s egg cell to form an embryo, and place that embryo in the gestational surrogate mother’s uterus. The surrogate then carries the baby to term and delivers it. She is technically the birth mother, but has no biological relation to the child.
Finding a surrogate mother is usually the most difficult part of the process. Depending on the method used, it can also be expensive. But the advantages are enormous; unlike with traditional adoption, you can still have at least one parent remain biologically related to the child, and you can stay in touch with the surrogate throughout the development process.
So why might a person seek out a surrogate mother to carry the child? These are just some of the main reasons:
Deciding to use a surrogate mother is a heavy decision, and one that falls on the couple alone. Regardless of what’s motivating the couple in question, surrogacy has the potential to bring the joys of parenthood to people who might otherwise never get to experience them. It’s a wonder of modern science and an ever-developing option for couples everywhere.