Why should you choose Shared Conception?

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We know when you Google “Surrogacy Agency,” a person can become overwhelmed with the results. There are lots of surrogacy agencies and choosing the “best” one is sometimes a daunting task in itself. However, we believe Shared Conception is the best option as a surrogacy agency and we’re ready to prove it to you.

First, we take our job so seriously. We work hard to match surrogates with their intended parents. This step is so crucial and important to the entire surrogacy journey. Finding the right fit for both parties is one of our many strong points. We excel in finding the right surrogates with the right intended families. A comprehensive questionnaire and interview process is only the beginning aspects of this process.

We screen both intended parents and surrogates to find out about their personalities, beliefs and ethics. This is just one way we make sure a perfect match is made.

Second, we are here for both the surrogates and intended parents through the entire journey. Whether emotional or physical support is needed, we are always available.

Third, we refer you to the best professionals in the business including top notch attorneys and psychologist They know how to cross their “Ts” and dot their “Is” when it comes to the psychological evaluation and the legal agreement.We want to make sure both the intended parents and the surrogate are comfortable with the documents, contracts and paperwork.

Ready to get started on the journey through surrogacy? Shared Conception is your best place to start.

Breast Milk and the Surrogate

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Surrogates can continue helping their intended parents even after the birth of the baby. Several recent studies highlight the benefits of feeding your child breast milk through their early, developing stages. For those heading through the journey of surrogacy, many intended parents wonder where that leaves them and their child.

The great choice with Shared Conception is that surrogates can offer their breast milk to their intended family. The surrogates pump the breast milk and either deliver or ship the milk to the family. This is such a win-win opportunity for everyone involved. The baby received the highly nutritious breast milk and the intended parents get to continue feeding their child the nutritious milk and bonding with the little one.

During the negotiation process is the perfect time to talk with the surrogate about the possibility of pumping milk after delivery. The surrogate usually includes the option for expressed milk in her contract for an additional fee. During negotiations is also the time to discuss how long the intended parents would like to feed their baby breast milk.

Have a question? Let us at Shared Conception help!


 

Surrogates can continue helping their intended parents even after the birth of the baby. Several recent studies highlight the benefits of feeding your child breast milk through their early, developing stages. For those heading through the journey of surrogacy, many intended parents wonder where that leaves them and their child.

 

The great choice with Shared Conception is that surrogates can offer their breast milk to their intended family. The surrogates pump the breast milk and either deliver or ship the milk to the family. This is such a win-win opportunity for everyone involved. The baby received the highly nutritious breast milk and the intended parents get to continue feeding their child the nutritious milk and bonding with the little one. 

 

During the negotiation process is the perfect time to talk with the surrogate about the possibility of pumping milk after delivery. The surrogate usually includes the option for expressed milk in her contract for an additional fee. During negotiations is also the time to discuss how long the intended parents would like to feed their baby breast milk.

 

Have a question? Let us at Shared Conception help!

 

 

Surrogates can continue helping their intended parents even after the birth of the baby. Several recent studies highlight the benefits of feeding your child breast milk through their early, developing stages. For those heading through the journey of surrogacy, many intended parents wonder where that leaves them and their child.

 

The great choice with Shared Conception is that surrogates can offer their breast milk to their intended family. The surrogates pump the breast milk and either deliver or ship the milk to the family. This is such a win-win opportunity for everyone involved. The baby received the highly nutritious breast milk and the intended parents get to continue feeding their child the nutritious milk and bonding with the little one. 

 

During the negotiation process is the perfect time to talk with the surrogate about the possibility of pumping milk after delivery. The surrogate usually includes the option for expressed milk in her contract for an additional fee. During negotiations is also the time to discuss how long the intended parents would like to feed their baby breast milk.

 

Have a question? Let us at Shared Conception help!

 

Including the Intended Parents Throughout the Journey

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Just like any parents, intended parents want to get to know their baby before he or she is ever born. The intended parents attend the doctor visits, watch the ultrasounds and listen intently to the little heartbeat.

Surrogates want the intended parents to stay involved with the baby, too. There are many ways for the intended parents to get to know their baby before the little one breathes his or her first breath.

One way is through Belly Buds (www.bellybuds.com). These great devises let the intended parents record their voice. They can sing, they can read books, they can talk, they can tell them about their family, the possibilities are endless. The recorded Belly Buds can then be sent to the surrogate for her to play to the baby. The baby gets to hear his or her parents’ voices before being born. He or she will get used to the soothing voice of her parents via Belly Buds.

Another easy way to keep the intended parents involved is to text and email. It doesn’t have to be long, but a simple text about what the surrogate is craving, what she is feeling, how the baby is moving, can make an intended parents’ day.

Or a surrogate can try keeping a blog about her journey. This is a great way for the extended family of the intended parents to also be included in what’s happening with the baby. Be sure to add in photos and even videos of the journey. Once the baby arrives, printing out the blog pages and having them bound into a nice, keepsake book is a great, meaningful gift to give the intended parents.

Ready to find out more? Ask us at Shared Conception!

Surrogates and health insurance

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Surrogates and health insurance

Shared Conception welcomes surrogates who both have and do not have health insurance. For those women who do have health insurance, we will happily look over your health insurance policy to see if there are any exceptions for being a surrogate. If there are no exceptions, and if the surrogate is willing, then we will use her own health insurance policy for the prenatal, labor and delivery portions of the pregnancy.

As always, the intended parents pay for all medical bills for the surrogate. This includes all co-pays, deductibles and other health-care related expenses.

If a surrogate does not have health insurance, then Shared Conception can help locate an outstanding health insurance policy for the surrogate. The intended parents will pay for the health insurance policy during the term of the pregnancy.

Have a specific health insurance related question? We can help answer it.

 

How much are surrogates compensated?

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How much are surrogates compensated?

At Shared Conception, each surrogate determines her fee to the intended parents. Many factors go into this overall number. Has the woman been a surrogate before? Is there travel time and cost involved? Will the surrogate’s health insurance be used or will she be required to purchase a new plan? Will this be considered a difficult pregnancy? Will there be more than one embryo or a multiple birth?

In addition, some surrogates have additional fees they include in their overall cost. Maternity clothes and a monthly allowance for paperwork and time involved in doctor’s visits are also factored in.

Also, if the pregnancy becomes high-risk, many surrogates have added expenses. Housecleaning services and lost wages are included if the surrogate is required to be on bed rest.

Answering these and several other questions can help a surrogate determine her base fee. Once the surrogate and her intended families are matched together, the parties negotiate to come up with the final compensation package.

Have a question? We’re here to help. Ask us at Shared Conception to help you get started on the journey to surrogacy.

 

Great gift ideas for surrogates

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Your surrogate is giving you the greatest gift you could ever imagine… your child. Some intended parents like to thank the woman who has given so much, in a special way. Here are a few ideas of special, meaningful gifts intended parents could give their surrogates.

– Spa Treatments. Who wouldn’t love a day of pampering? You could choose to give it to her while she’s still pregnant. Many spa facilities and women centers specialize in pregnant massages. Or, intended parents could wait until after she delivers the baby and have her enjoy a day to herself.

– Pamper Basket. Include her favorite magazines, soothing lotions and some gift cards to her favorite restaurants or stores. A basket full of goodies just for her, will always be a welcome treat.

– Specialized services. How nice would it be to surprise her with a maid service for a day? Who wouldn’t love a clean house? A gift to help her would make a happy surrogate, indeed.

Have other suggestions? What would you love to get if you were a surrogate?

 

Guest Blog! Independent vs. Agency

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By Carmela Cancino

One of the first questions that a potential surrogate must answer is whether or not she will be working with an agency to find her match. I started my surrogacy journey with an agency that, in my opinion, threw up too many red flags and tried to take advantage of me. After making an extremely hard decision, I decided to walk away from my match and my agency, having learned a hard lesson. An agency can be your best friend, but only if you pick the right one.

Incidentally, I ended up going “indy” or searching for and matching on my own for my surrogacy. I was fortunate enough to meet a sweet couple and our journey went about as smoothly as one could. That’s not to say that all independent journeys are so. Agency or not, if the right steps are not taken and the time to get to really know one another and talk through important issues isn’t spent, things can still go awry. However, there are some advantages to having a good agency on your side.

For any person considering surrogacy, I would recommend several hours of research and the asking of many questions. Your contact at an agency can help guide you and walk you through these steps and take you through different scenarios that you may not have thought about on your own. It’s my opinion that you should always, always, always have psychological and background checks for all parties (potential surrogates and intended parents or “IPs”) and some of those questions will be discussed in the screenings. However, an agency can help pinpoint specific areas which will make or break a good match. Concrete things like compensation amounts, home or hospital birth and termination are significant items for discussion. These issues are not always so easy to discuss and either party may feel uncomfortable or embarrassed for bringing them up. It is imperative that they be discussed and that everyone is on the same page and the agency representative can help bring those items to the table so that both parties feel comfortable about discussing them.

Agencies also assist with the matching process and can help fine tune your search. I’ve searched through ad after ad and spent time responding and then feeling badly when I didn’t feel like it was a match. I’ve also spent days emailing with someone only to have them drop off the face of the Earth. It can be a bit frustrating when you are so eager to help someone only to get discouraged before you ever really get started. Usually agencies have a pool of would-be surrogates and IPs that are serious and waiting to get started. There are never any guarantees that nothing will go wrong, but I feel like the risk is greatly diminished with the use of an agency as the screening process seems to weed out some less than desirable candidates (on both sides).

Lastly, an agency can be your go-to source for the questions that pop up at 2AM (although I usually write them down and wait to call or email in the morning) and a great support system. There were many times during my journey where I didn’t know how to proceed and if I should “worry” the parents with things. Having someone to bounce those things off of would’ve been a wonderful resource (although I was fortunate enough to have a group of surrogates that knew almost all the answers to any of my questions)!

In short, an agency can prove to be a valuable asset that can streamline and help fortify the foundation for a good journey.

The delivery!

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As a surrogate, when the time comes to deliver the baby, there are so many emotions racing. We want to be sure everything is ready and in place well before the actual delivery day. There will be a cute bundle of joy (or two!) that will take center stage, of course.

For the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, the IVF clinic will continue to monitor your progress. Then, the surrogate will be released to the OB/GYN of her choosing. Many times this is the doctor she has used for her previous children’s births and delivery. If there are multiple babies, many times the surrogates will be asked to come to the doctor’s office for more frequent visits to ensure the health of the babies and the surrogate.

After the birth, the baby is handed to the intended parents first. It’s nice, too, if the intended parents ask the surrogate if she wants to hold the baby. Some surrogates decide they don’t want to but most relish the moment.

Then, once the baby is released by the pediatrician, the intended family will leave the hospital with their chid. The surrogate will leave the hospital with her family, and the wonderful feeling of helping a couple become a family.

Do you have questions about being a surrogate or the process on delivery day? Shared Conception would love to answer any questions you may have.

How to pick a surrogacy agency

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If you’ve thought it over, researched the topic and are ready to head down the road of surrogacy, your first thought might be, “How do I pick a surrogate agency?” Here are a few suggestions.

1. Do your research. Research on the Internet different agencies in your area. Although there are hundreds of agencies in the nation, many surrogates feel they like to use an agency close by. The geographical distance can be an issue when you’re paired with intended parents. Finding a fit that you’re comfortable with in terms of distance, is a good place to start.

2. Make a list. If you’ve never been a surrogate before, then you’re going to have questions. Chances are if you have been a surrogate before, you’ll still have questions! Make a list of your questions or topics you’d like answered.

3. Call and set up an interview. Call your top two or three surrogacy agencies and ask to speak with someone in charge. Ask if you can come in and set up a time to talk about becoming a surrogate. Be sure to bring your list of questions when you go.

4. Trust your gut. After meeting with a few agencies, go with what feels right to you. You will be working closely with the agency as you travel the journey of your pregnancy. You will want to feel comfortable, open and at ease at the agency. Pick the agency that best fits with you.

Have a question? Let us help! We are surrogate experts.

 

Embryo Transfer Process for Surrogates

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There are several different aspects to the embryo transfer process. Many times, surrogates will take oral contraceptives in order to sync the timing of her menstruation cycle to the same time as the intended mother’s cycle. This aids in making the transfer of eggs and embryos more uniform and easy.

During the actual transfer, a catheter is inserted into the surrogate’s vagina then uterus. The embryos will be placed through the catheter and into the uterus for implantation.

The surrogate will be asked to stay on bed rest for two to three days after the transfer.

Ten to fourteen days after the embryo transfer process, the surrogate will take a pregnancy test at the clinic. During the first 12 weeks, the surrogate will take several blood tests and ultrasounds to keep track of the progress. Both the intended parents and the surrogate will be involved and kept up-to-date on the progress of the pregnancy.

Although each IVF clinic is different, many of these steps remain the same. Have specific questions about the process? Ask us at Shared Conception. We can help!