It’s normal for a couple coming together to decide to start a new phase of their lives, like beginning a family. For many, this route is as simple as allowing the woman in the partnership to become pregnant and give birth to a baby nine months later. Unfortunately, not every couple finds this path an easy road to take.
For some, medical complications like a heart condition or surgical removal of the uterus due to a hysterectomy make pregnancy either difficult or medically impossible. Fortunately, there are still solutions for couples that want a newborn baby of their own, such as surrogacy, but this requires additional investment, and the costs can be significant.
Expenses Add Up
Surrogacy is when another woman that has been medically evaluated to be suitable agrees to become pregnant on behalf of a couple. Once fertilization is confirmed, she takes care of herself with medical assistance when needed for the nine months until it is time to give birth. Once the baby is born, the infant is then united with the hopeful couple, and a new life together as a family can begin.
However, there are various costs associated with surrogacy, which can get higher depending on the type of surrogacy. Some of the possible costs related to this are:
Living Expenses & Medical Coverage
This is the baseline and is a “fixed cost” for every surrogacy. At a minimum, a hopeful couple is expected to provide living expenses for a surrogate mother as the pregnancy progresses. The reason for this is simple. A surrogate mother cannot work and provide for herself in the later stages of pregnancy.
If she can’t provide for herself, she can’t eat, and if she can’t eat, the growing baby’s health will be put at serious risk. Medical coverage is also a given since if the surrogate mother is expected to pay for medical expenses herself and can’t do so, then the baby suffers from a lack of proper medical supervision, especially at the time of birth.
Compensation
On top of this, depending on a couple’s desire for more options, financial compensation to the surrogate mother herself can be another expense. If surrogacy is “altruistic,” this means a surrogate mother is volunteering her time and bodily resources in a desire to help a hopeful couple and expects no other reward. This, however, tends to reduce the number of available, medically suitable candidates since few women, understandably, are willing to go to these lengths to help a couple in need.
However, with high enough compensation, many more women are available as candidates. Couples that want more choices and options must be prepared to invest in compensated surrogacy if they want the luxury of picking from an array of suitable surrogate mother candidates.
Saving Costs Abroad
This is where many couples start looking at surrogacy abroad as a possible solution to lower costs. Is it possible to find a “low-cost” surrogate when you go abroad? If you want quality, and proper medical supervision, then the answer is “no,” as promises of a low-cost surrogacy are likely to be scams.
However, for those couples that would like a surrogacy experience that costs less than what they would invest in their country of residence, the answer is a more reasonable “yes.” It is possible to find lower-cost surrogate mothers abroad, and these are the reasons why.
More Accurate Medical Costings
In many cases, the cost of medical care and treatment in countries other than the United States tends to be lower because these countries don’t rely on baroque insurance coverage plans that can inflate costs. In countries with healthcare systems or more direct payments from patient to caregiver, costs tend to be lower, which, in surrogacy, passes savings onto the couple.
Currency Differences
The American dollar is the standard by which all others are measured, but other countries, such as Georgia, in Eastern Europe, use their own currencies, not the USD and not even the Euro. This means that the currency differences favor lower costs, especially in the area of payment to a surrogate mother.
Check Your Resources
While it is possible to try to negotiate personally with surrogates abroad, this requires an enormous investment of effort. Language barriers, for example, mean that you may need to learn the language of a potential surrogate mother if you want to interact directly.
The most efficient way to find lower-cost surrogate mothers abroad is to deal with a surrogacy agency or a clinic. These organizations already have the means to communicate with couples from other countries. They also have databases with surrogate mother candidates, meaning that coordinating a couple’s needs becomes faster and more efficient.
However, it’s important to note that while finding lower-cost surrogate mothers abroad is possible, the additional cost of travel expenses must also offset this. However, in many cases, the combination of lower cost without compromising on quality makes surrogacy abroad a preferable alternative.