Couples who decide to commit to surrogacy as the way to start their family already know that they have a longer and more challenging road ahead of them compared to couples that follow the conventional path. Usually, they are overcoming some significant obstacle, with medical conditions being one of the most common.
However, for some couples, one of the best ways to address many of the factors involved in a successful surrogacy is by choosing to travel to another country. By choosing to work with a surrogate mother in Georgia, for example, couples get access to a much larger range of medically suitable surrogate mother candidates because surrogacy in Georgia permits both altruistic and compensated surrogacies.
Compensated surrogacies, unlike altruistic, involve significant financial remuneration for the surrogate mother herself. As a result, many more women are willing to take on this role in countries that allow it. However, before you go calculating your surrogacy cost in Georgia or looking for a surrogate mother in Georgia, here’s how you should prepare for the experience.
Ensure You Are Recognized Under Georgian Law
One of the first gates to pass for those considering finding and working with a surrogate mother in Georgia is ensuring you are legal to do so in the first place. Georgia has modernized its constitution so that the rights of both the surrogate mother and the hopeful parents are represented and protected under the law. However, that surrogacy law only extends to heterosexual couples.
If you intended to be a single parent, or this is a surrogate motherhood for a same-sex couple, surrogacy rights and procedures cannot be extended to you. However, if you are a heterosexual couple, then you can safely negotiate with surrogacy centers and surrogate mothers within Georgia and enjoy the full protection of the law.
Define Your Goals
Another important step for finding a surrogate mother in Georgia is making sure your surrogacy goals are clear, well-defined, and easy to communicate. While surrogacy is legal in Georgia, not every surrogate mother may necessarily agree to the kind of surrogacy you want.
For example, at its simplest, some surrogate mothers may only feel comfortable with traditional surrogacy, using artificial insemination to fertilize the egg of the surrogate mother herself. If your goal is to have a child with the DNA of both the hopeful mother and father, this will involve the In Vitro Fertilization procedure, or IVF. This procedure fertilizes the egg and sperm in the lab and then implants it into the surrogate mother. If you don’t make this goal clear from the outset, you may lose potential surrogate mothers early one who are unwilling to take part in this procedure.
Ensure Your Finances Are In Order
Surrogacy is, to no one’s surprise, a costly investment. Couples must ensure they are able to handle the financial commitment of travel, covering the living expenses of the surrogate mother as the pregnancy progresses, and the medical costs as well to ensure the health and safe birth of the baby are all part of the surrogacy cost in Georgia.
Of course, on top of all this is the cost of the surrogacy itself if you have agreed to a compensated surrogacy. Compensation for surrogates is always significant and, at minimum, in American dollars, will run in the tens of thousands. There is a lot of variance in just how much the compensation can cost. Depending on the arrangement, surrogacy compensation can range from $25000 to $120000, so it’s important to figure out where your budget is for your surrogacy costs in Georgia.
This is particularly true for surrogacies where you may want additional procedures. The IVF procedure is an added cost, and this goes up even more with additional services such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis to screen for possible hereditary family illnesses like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia. If sperm or egg samples are required and must be retrieved from cryogenic storage and safely transported to a lab in Georgia, this is also an additional cost.
Find Your Surrogacy Center
The final and probably most important thing you should be doing to find a surrogate mother in Georgia is researching a reputable surrogacy center. As with the surrogate mother herself, finding a surrogacy center in Georgia is largely a matter of knowing what your needs are and finding a surrogacy center that is compatible with those needs.
With the right surrogacy center in Georgia, you get the benefit of an experienced, reputable agency that already has the safeguards in place to protect both you and a surrogate mother. Extensive screening procedures will be in place to ensure that only healthy and committed surrogate candidates are available. A good surrogacy clinic can also handle all communications. They will be fluent in your language and have the legal experience to deal with any citizenship requirements you may need to address to return home safely with a newborn.
With this approach, you can better control your surrogacy costs in Georgia while finding your surrogate mother in Georgia.