info.nb@surmom.co.il
Surrogacy is when a woman medically deemed “safe” agrees to become pregnant for a couple. After the usual nine-month pregnancy, the baby, when born, is introduced to the new, would-be parents, and a new phase of life begins for a new family.
This alternative for pregnancy is usually chosen by couples for whom normal pregnancy is impossible, or not medically advised. A same-sex male couple, for example, can’t have a baby between either partner, while a woman diagnosed with HIV can become pregnant, but guarantees transmitting that disease to the unborn baby.
Of course, with any pregnancy, certain factors can’t be altered. The actual time of pregnancy is one of those things. Unless would-be parents want to run substantial medical risks that may endanger the life of the baby, there is no way to “rush” the nine-month average period of pregnancy.
There are, however, other factors that may reduce the amount of time required to get to the waiting stage of nine months. Here are a few.
Look At Your Surrogacy Options
People have two geographical choices for surrogacy. They either stay local or go abroad. Some time for the surrogacy process is going to be saved if you can undertake this journey locally. This means it will be far easier to meet with potential surrogates, get to know them better and be able to respond to their needs in a much more timely fashion. Going abroad means having to schedule trips to both find a surrogate and then regularly meet and provide support until the time of birth arrives.
For some would-be parents, this is all a matter of convenience. Others may have no choice. If the would-be family lives in a country where surrogacy is illegal, for examples, such as France or Germany, then there are no local options. There’s no choice except to go abroad. However, if you do have the option of remaining local, or going abroad, then staying local saves some time.
Choose A Surrogate You Know
One of the more significant “time sinks” in the surrogacy process can be finding the actual surrogate mother herself. Of course, the reason for this is the surrogate mother is the central component of this process. You don’t want to make any mistakes with choosing the woman that will carry a child for nine months and then deliver a healthy baby to form a new family.
If a would-be family is “starting from zero,” this may involve travel to another country and having to interview rounds of surrogate mothers there. This is an involved process, with multiple interviews, and both the would-be family and surrogate mother feeling comfortable about the arrangement and agreeing to it. Depending on the needs and feelings of the would-be family, this process can involve many candidates, with many interviews, and can potentially last months.
On the other hand, if a would-be family already knows and trusts a family member or friend of the family that is willing, this saves time. The would-be family already knows the potential surrogate mother candidate, she knows and trusts them. A stable relationship is already in place. If the candidate is deemed medically appropriate, then this is a fast-track way to get results.
Choose Traditional Surrogacy
Another way to dramatically shorten the period for the surrogacy process is to choose “traditional surrogacy.” Gestational surrogacy is a more recent, but very popular development for would-be parents. It means taking the sperm and the egg from both would-be parents, fertilizing them in a lab, and implanting them in the surrogate mother. In some cases, this may even mean having to retrieve sperm or egg specimens from cryogenic storage, if there are other circumstances. The would-be father, for example, may have had a vasectomy, but had some sperm removed before the procedure took place.
Gestational surrogacies can potentially add on more time through the retrievable and transport of sperm/egg samples to the lab. More time can be added on if there’s a need for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, or PGD if there’s a concern of checking for family illnesses that may be passed down, such as cystic fibrosis.
Traditional surrogacy uses the egg of the surrogate mother herself. No lab fertilization and implantation are required in this scenario. Instead, artificial insemination, a very well-established technique, is used to maximize the chances of successful fertilization.
Time vs. Choice
Ultimately, the amount of time a would-be family is willing to spend in the surrogacy process translates into more options and choices. The faster options will often result in less time to the end goal of the delivery of a healthy baby, but this usually also limits choices.
It’s up to each would-be family to find their own comfort zone and decide how much choice versus how much time they would like to have for the surrogacy process.