In the 21st century, surrogate motherhood is, now more than ever, a viable way for hopeful families struggling to have a child make their dreams come true. For millennia, surrogate motherhood has always been an alternative, and even in the Bible, there are instances of surrogate motherhood recorded in the religious text.
Today, however, surrogacy is more accessible, more safe, and more successful for more couples than ever before. That is because medical science has made a good number of advances in both technology and procedure, and these improvements have been concentrated into special facilities, known as surrogacy medical centers. So what are these facilities, and how do they help hopeful families to have a child?
Providing Legal Alternatives
One of the most important advantages of going to a surrogacy medical center, especially an international one, is having a legal means of undertaking surrogacy. Depending on which country, or part of a country you come from, surrogacy may be extremely limited in legality, or not at all.
For example, in France and Germany, surrogacy of all types is banned. Any couple that can’t naturally conceive a child must either adopt, or remain childless unless they travel to another surrogacy medical center in a country where surrogacy is considered legal, and thus the hopeful family has legally recognized rights over any child born there. In some cases, limited types of surrogacy may only be available depending on the country. Canada, as another example, allows altruistic surrogacy, that is, surrogacy in which no profit is legally allowed, which can narrow the available pool of candidates, though if Canadians live in the province of Quebec, then surrogacy, as in France, is completely outlawed.
By traveling to a country where surrogacy is legal, and engaging the services of a surrogacy medical center there, couples can safely have a child where, upon birth, they, and not the birth mother, are recognized as the child’s rightful parents.
More Safety
By choosing to visit a surrogacy medical center, couples also benefit from a medical facility that is specialized in their area of interest. In the same way that you get better results visiting an obstetrician for pregnancy, rather than continuing to visit a general practitioner, couples get much better treatment at a dedicated surrogacy medical center, rather than a general hospital environment. This holds for both the couple as well as the surrogate mother herself.
A surrogacy medical center will also have valuable experience, equipment, and knowledge to undertake more specialized tasks, such as safely retrieving donor genetic material from other countries. Some hopeful families, as one example, had their reproductive organs removed or rendered infertile due to medical treatments to save their lives. However, before the procedures took place, the sperm, egg, or both were removed and cryogenically stored elsewhere, to be used when the couple finally decided, through surrogacy to have a child of their own.
This donor genetic material is extremely fragile and must be carefully transported as well as brought out of cryogenic preservation, to ensure they are still viable for use in in vitro fertilization. An experienced surrogacy medical center has the staff and equipment to administrate transport safely, and then retrieve the material in a lab in a safe manner to undergo IVF in the lab.
More Options
By going to a surrogacy medical center, this also provides hopeful couples with many options for undertaking surrogate motherhood. IVF, or In Vitro Fertilization, is a popular and common method of surrogate motherhood, where an egg and sperm from two donors—usually the hopeful family—are fertilized in a lab, then implanted in the surrogate mother.
However, for some, there may be a wish for a different egg, in which case other donors may be required. A good surrogacy medical center can provide different options for this choice as well. There is also another option where the egg of the surrogate mother herself may be used if there’s no need, or wish for a source egg from a hopeful mother. The selection process of either a donor, or the surrogate mother can be a daunting one, but a surrogacy medical center can safely manage this as well.
All Under One Roof
There are many logistical considerations to address if you decide to undertake surrogacy, especially if you go to another country to take advantage of their surrogacy medical center facilities. How will you organize the trip? How will you structure the financing? Do you know how much it will cost? How will you handle the surrogate mother selection? What about the legalities of the child’s citizenship status? How will this be addressed?
These and many other questions will all need to be answered to have a smooth experience. But if you go to the right clinic or surrogacy medical center, with the proper services all gathered in one place, you can simplify this process a lot by only having to deal with one organization, instead of many that then need to coordinate with each other.