When confronted with the surrogacy for the first time, expectant parents are at a loss; there are many questions: “Where to turn?”, “Where to find a surrogate”, “How to organize the process correctly?”, “How much does surrogacy cost?”, “Is it legal?”. Surrogacy is really not an easy process that requires serious preparation.
If you are faced with a diagnosis of infertility and your fertility doctor recommends using a surrogacy program, do not despair. Thousands of families have had this experience, which means it will work out for you, too. Surrogacy procedure in Russia is absolutely legal and quite widespread. The first thing is to make a decision on how you are going to apply this subsidiary reproductive technology. There are two options here. The first one is the independent organization of the process. You need to find a woman of reproductive age who can carry a child for you. When looking for a surrogate mother on your own, there are a lot of factors that should be taken into consideration. The woman should be at the age of 20 to 35, have a healthy child of her own, have a natural childbirth, be Rh negative, and be completely physically and psychologically healthy. It is also important to consider where the surrogate mother lives and whether she has access to medical facilities where she can receive quality care. It is also important how comfortable the surrogate’s family environment is, since during the period of pregnancy she is shown maximum protection from stress and nervous overstrain. Besides, it is important to establish confidential relations with the woman who will carry your baby, as you will closely interact with her during the next months. Surrogate mother should be well aware of her responsibilities and follow all recommendations of your doctors. Besides selecting a surrogate mother, you should also organize the whole process – provide the necessary living conditions, find a clinic where the pregnancy will take place, agree with the maternity hospital, work out an individual surrogacy contract that should reflect all the nuances of the program, the surrogate mother’s responsibility, and also the dates and amount of all the payments. You will also need to study all the legal details of the process, prepare a list of necessary documents and certificates that will be required later for registration of the child in the registry office. If you have time, energy, and desire to organize surrogacy program by yourself, this option may well suit you. However, many parents prefer to entrust the process to professionals by turning to a specialized agency, and there are many reasons for that.
If you decide to apply to the agency, the first thing you should pay attention to is the experience of the company. This is a very important criterion in the surrogacy sphere, since in order to carry out the programme with maximum efficiency and quality, the knowledge and experience in applying all the nuances in practice, as well as the skills to act in emergency situations are very important. Only over the years you can build up such a base, unfortunately, theory does not work here. A good agency will choose a surrogate mother and organize the whole process, including the medical part, will take care of all the issues concerning the programme, and you will only get weekly reports from your curator and will be pleasantly surprised when your child is born. Besides that, any quality agency will undertake the risks of surrogate’s actions, protect you from the possibility of blackmail and loss of money, and act as a safety cushion between you and the surrogate mother. Communication with the pregnant woman is also undertaken by the company, every woman is accompanied by an individual experienced supervisor who is in touch with the surrogate 24 hours per day and always ready to provide the necessary assistance. The agency also takes care of the legal aspects and prepares all the necessary documents for obtaining the birth certificate.