Questions to Ask a Surrogacy Agency
Knowing how to choose a surrogacy agency requires information on the services, support and experience a prospective agency can provide. This guide will give you ten important questions to ask a surrogacy agency to help you make a confident decision for your journey.
Before you read this guide on how to pick a surrogacy agency and ten important surrogacy agency questions, complete this form to get connected to a surrogacy specialist. They are ready to give you important information about the surrogacy process and why working with the right agency is essential to having the best possible experience.
Now, are you ready to find out how to choose a surrogacy agency? Here are ten questions to ask so that you can compare surrogacy agencies and make a confident decision on which agency to choose.
How Long Has Your Agency Existed?
Even though gestational surrogacy and surrogacy agencies are somewhat new and seeing considerable growth in popularity, the best surrogacy agencies have existed long before the current rise in available intended parents looking for surrogates.
When you compare surrogacy agencies, it can be beneficial to find an agency with more experience and a history of working with hopeful parents and surrogates. Agencies with more experience can provide you with better surrogacy opportunities and have perfected their matching services to ensure intended parents and surrogates are well qualified.
Remember, you can always reach out to a surrogacy specialist to get more information on the qualities and services to look for when searching for a surrogacy agency.
What Requirements Do Intended Parents and Prospective Surrogates Have to Meet?
When choosing a surrogacy agency, researching the requirements and screening process for both intended parents and prospective surrogates is an important place to start. Look for agencies that complete this screening process prior to matching.
While choosing an agency with a more stringent screening process might increase the length of your journey, only qualified intended parents and surrogates are matched.
Whether you’re an intended parent or surrogate, meeting the necessary mental, physical and medical requirements to show you’re a qualified, serious and professional candidate is a crucial step in ensuring your experience is safe, smooth and results in a successful surrogacy journey.
You can get more information on the screening process by taking this link. You can also connect with a surrogacy specialist to get more information on the screening process by filling out this online form.
What Services are Provided for Intended Parents and Surrogates?
As you continue to get information on how to find a surrogacy agency, the services a potential agency offers are at the top of the list of importance.
Working with an agency that offers a full range of services directly impacts your experience, and both intended parents and surrogates deserve to work with professionals that can provide the services and support that ensure you have the best possible surrogacy journey.
Here are some of the services you’ll need:
- Screening services – As mentioned above, the screening process for intended parents and surrogates is critical to ensuring qualified candidates get matched.
- Matching services – The best surrogacy agencies offer matching services that bring amazing intended parents dreaming of parenthood and qualified, professional surrogates choosing to carry a baby for the right reasons.
- Case management – When you compare surrogacy agencies, you’ll want to work with an agency that provides a trusted and experienced professional handling every aspect of your surrogacy journey. Coordinating appointments and information with the fertility clinic and connecting you with an experienced surrogacy attorney to handle the legal side of your journey are just some of the vital services your specialist provides.
- Counseling services – Surrogacy is an emotional decision. The process of surrogacy can be lengthy. The best surrogacy agencies provide counseling to intended parents and surrogates to help manage the emotional challenges. You will want to find a surrogacy agency that employs licensed counseling and mental health professionals who are qualified to provide this vital service.
- And more
Want more information on how to choose a surrogacy agency and the services the best agencies provide? Complete this form to connect to a surrogacy specialist today. They can answer all of your important questions about how to find a surrogacy agency and what services you need.
How Do You Match Intended Parents and Surrogates?
When choosing a surrogacy agency, you’ll want to make sure that your personal preferences are taken into account during the matching process. As an intended parent or surrogate, you may have a particular partner in mind for your surrogacy journey.
In some cases, as a surrogate, you may wish to work with an intended parent coming from a specific background or family type. For intended parents searching for a qualified surrogate, finding a candidate of a particular age range or lifestyle may be important to you.
Whatever your preferences are, the best surrogacy agencies are capable of using your preferences in matching.
Did you know you can get your surrogacy journey started today by filling out this online form? A surrogacy specialist is ready to help you get the screening process started and begin creating a surrogacy plan that includes all the preferences you have for your journey.
How Do You Protect Intended Parents and Surrogates Legally?
Reputable agencies provide in-house surrogacy attorneys or refer you to an experienced and ethical attorney capable of handling all the legalities of surrogacy.
They help create a surrogacy contract between intended parents and surrogates, laying out specific details such as the medical risks of surrogacy, the number of attempts at embryo transfer that will be made to get a viable pregnancy, contact and surrogate compensation.
It’s important intended parents and surrogates are on the same page with every layer of the surrogacy journey and agree on sensitive issues like selective reduction, termination of pregnancy and more.
When researching how to choose a surrogacy agency, look for agencies that offer full legal protection by providing you with surrogacy attorneys with expertise in surrogacy laws.
Do You Provide a Breakdown of Costs and Compensation?
Working with an agency that provides detailed breakdowns of costs and compensation is critical. Agencies that offer vague information on financials should be a red flag.
Intended parents: You need to know where your money is going. When choosing a surrogacy agency, find one that can specifically tell you how your money gets used to cover surrogacy costs.
As a prospective surrogate, you want an agency that can explain compensation, how you get paid and when, and details about using an escrow account.
When comparing surrogate compensation between agencies, make sure to take into account the amount that you will be paid purely in base compensation. Some agencies quote misleadingly large numbers that include reimbursements for pregnancy-related expenses. To accurately compare surrogacy agencies for surrogates, the amount you will be paid in base compensation is what really matters — this is the money that actually goes in your pocket, to use in whatever way you choose.
You want a surrogacy agency that’s fully transparent and honest about finances. While you might not get an exact quote because of unknown costs early in the surrogacy process, you will get information on how surrogacy finances and compensation work.
How Many Staff Members Do You Have?
Your surrogacy journey is important. You deserve the personal attention of an experienced professional that can help you with every step of the surrogacy process.
As you get more information on how to choose a surrogacy agency, you’ll want to keep an eye out for agencies that offer a dedicated professional to provide you with personal attention and who are committed to providing you with services for every step of your surrogacy journey.
Be sure to complete this online form to get connected to a specialist capable of managing every aspect of your surrogacy experience.
You can also create a list of questions to ask a surrogacy agency that will give you the chance to interview professionals to make the most confident decision for your journey.
What Post-Surrogacy Support is Available?
As a surrogate choosing a surrogacy agency, you want to look for an experienced professional that offers post-surrogacy support and counseling.
Surrogacy and pregnancy are both emotional experiences. Because you’ve had at least one previous pregnancy, you know the emotional rollercoaster that comes with carrying a child.
Having someone to help you with the emotions after the birth of the baby and the completion of your surrogacy journey is an essential service to consider when you compare surrogacy agencies.
Want more information on what possible emotional challenges surrogates face? Fill out this online contact form to speak to a trusted surrogacy specialist today.
How Do You Protect the Parental Rights of Intended Parents?
Some intended parents worry that their parental rights could be at risk if their surrogate becomes bonded to the baby — but this idea is largely based on myth. Because the best surrogacy agencies only offer gestational surrogacy programs and go through a detailed screening process with prospective surrogates, you will never get matched with a surrogate interested in “keeping the baby.”
Also, gestational surrogacy means there is no genetic link between the surrogate and the child. Prospective surrogates have had at least one successful previous pregnancy and are currently raising a child in their home. All of this helps ensure that surrogates are emotionally prepared for the journey ahead.
Your surrogate chooses to carry your baby because of the desire to experience pregnancy again and help you see your dream of parenthood become a reality. She isn’t interested in taking your baby home!
Additionally, your surrogacy attorney will draft up your legal contract laying out specific details, including surrogate compensation, mutual understanding of the risks associated with surrogacy and more. At some point during the third trimester, intended parents often obtain a pre-birth order to establish their parental rights.
If you have more surrogacy agency questions regarding parental rights, complete this online form to connect with a professional ready to provide you with information on how to choose a surrogacy agency that fits your needs.
Why Should I Choose Your Agency?
Ultimately, this is one of the most significant questions you can ask when choosing a surrogacy agency.
You need to know precisely how an agency is going to help you with your surrogacy journey. Having your questions answered and getting the information to confidently determine whether you and a prospective agency are a good fit is crucial.
You have needs, goals and expectations for your experience. Finding a surrogacy agency that can provide you with the services you need to have a safe, healthy and happy surrogacy experience is essential.
The relationship shared by intended parents and surrogates throughout the surrogacy process and long after the baby is born is deeply personal. You deserve to work with an agency that can offer you complete support.
You can get more free information on how to choose a surrogacy agency and how to find the best agency for you when you complete this online form. A surrogacy specialist can provide you with the information needed to make the most informed and confident decision possible.