First of all, I want to note that accepted all over the world and in Russia in particular, the term "surrogate" offends the ear. The wording of the World Health Organization, of course, is more fair and correct: "Gestational courier: a womanе, whose pregnancy occurred as a result of fertilization of oocytes owned by a third party by sperm cells which also belong to a third party. She is carrying the pregnancy with the condition or agreement that the parents of the born child will be one or both individuals, whose gametes were used for fertilization".
The development of medicine all over the world practically left no diagnoses (in terms of human reproductive functions), that are not amenable to treatment with certain types of assisted reproductive technologies. In particular surrogate (substitutionary) motherhood becomes a solution for those families who, for example, due to congenital absence of the uterus cannot have their own child in any OTHER way. Information about the indications for this method of reproductive technologies, as well as about the requirements of physicians for surrogate mothers, is available in the section Legislation . We will touch on the practical sides of the surrogate motherhood program.
Surrogate motherhood - what is it? First of all, you have to understand that participation in the ART (IVF, ICSI) program of a third party - a surrogate mother, has long become a routine procedure for the Russian reproductologists. The only difference from the ordinary ART procedures is the synchronization process of menstrual cycles in you and the selected surrogate mother.
If you are going to perform IVF for the first time, we recommend to get acquainted with the procedure on pages of the site. You can run into the same fears and failures, as women in the standard protocols. You will go through all the stages except the embryo transfer: your embryos will be transferred into the uterine cavity of a surrogate mother. By the way, nowadays, embryo transfer both to you and to the surrogate mother is quite common.
Stages of the surrogate motherhood program
1. Getting a doctor's "direction" or making a conscious decision due to the absence of the possibility of independent childbearing for medical grounds.
2. Psychological preparation of married couple for such method of the problem solvation (studying of websites, other successful examples, communication with couples dealing with the same problem, preparation of relatives and friends, if you do not plan to stage pregnancy in front of them, otherwise, searching for possibilities to conceal from relatives and friends your 3-5-month confinement or isolation).
3. Studying of the legal framework on this issue, consultations with lawyers - specialists in the field. Usually, experts in the field of ART are also professionals in the provision of the surrogate motherhood services. Therefore we recommend to start with this consultation.
4. Financial preparation for the program. You have to clearly understand that participation of a surrogate mother will be any way paid by you, as well as all medical, pharmacological and living expenses will also come upon you.
5. Search for candidates.
А.
First, think, maybe any of your relatives can perform the role of a surrogate mother for you. This situation has its own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include the fact that, most likely, you will not have difficulties with signing agreement by a surrogate mother in order to register the child on your names. Also, you will probably be able to save money on remuneration of a surrogate mother. The disadvantages certainly include the fact that after the birth of a child your relative will meet him or her. Do you really need this? However, participation of close relatives in the surrogate motherhood program is certainly the easiest and most economical way.
B. If you have to look for a surrogate mother not among the relatives and acquaintances then you need to look for her independently.
C. For the assistance in finding a surrogate mother you can apply to a clinic.Some reproductive health clinics have databases of surrogate mothers. Typically, this is a list of women with indication of contacts, age and name. This way is not much different from the self-search.
Here's what you will have to do next in the case of an independent search or contacting the IVF clinic database of surrogate mothers:
advices of experienced people. .
D.
It is worth to find a reliable company that specializes in surrogacy escorting. When assessing a company, first of all it is necessary to consider the term of its existence; it is not superfluous to ask the number of performed cycles and born children. Referring to a pro, you have to clearly realize that the more the company does for you, the higher is the price of the service. The best companies work only comprehensively (i.e. it is more likely that they won’t provide you just intermediary services, such as selection of SM).
Advice: since you face the surrogate motherhood for the first time, during the consultation meticulously question about what is included into the package of services that you will be provided. Demand to clarify , what your money is being spent for..
When working with a particular IVF clinic, you may run into insistent recommendations of appealing to "their" lawyer and (or) intermediary. Keep in mind that the choice of a company accompanying the surrogate motherhood, has NOTHING to do with services provided by IVF clinic; generally speaking, it is not a clinic's concern who you are working with for the maintenance of surrogacy.
Let’s repeat once again: referring, for example, to the company "Blago" (apparently the most professional company in Russia), you will save yourself from a lot of troubles, but do not forget that "Blago" is a commercial enterprise, although some segments of the "Blago" services are provided for free (consultations, documents for the register office, expertise of contracts). "Blago" has offices in most of the regional centers of the Russian Federation, but works mostly with clinics in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Whichever way you choose, we wish you a prompt pregnancy, easy childbirth and a lot of kids!!!
GOOD LUCK!
