Both surrogate and intended parents have their fear of surrogacy. All fear about surrogacy is not completely unjustified, but the correct arrangement with proper legal documentation can eradicate all the possible fear associated with surrogacy.
Fear of intended parents about surrogacy
The surrogate will keep the born child with her
In 1986, a traditional surrogacy case was conducted and the born child had a biological relationship with the surrogate. The Surrogate did not relinquish the child after giving birth and applied for the legal parenteral right to the court. The mess created by this whole event generates fear among the general population about surrogacy. However, it is necessary to mention that times have changed, more stringent rules and regulations are formed to prevent such circumstances, and legal agreements become necessary between surrogate and intended parents where it is mentioned that intended parents will get the parental rights after childbirth. Therefore, the surrogate must relinquish the child after giving birth. Currently more advanced assisted reproductive technology has been used in surrogacy. The surrogate only acts as a gestational carrier and does not have any biological connection with the born child. Many countries completely banned traditional surrogacy. Therefore, the chances of keeping the baby with a surrogate are negligible in current days.
Affordability of surrogacy
Surrogacy is a costly fertility treatment. Apart from medical costs, the expenditure is extended due to the requirement of legal support, surrogacy agency service charges, surrogate compensation, traveling, and inclusion of other charges. Therefore, intended parents must have strong financial support to carry forward the surrogacy program.
Giving every effort goes vein because surrogacy ends up without a baby
The success of surrogacy depends upon a successful IVF outcome. It is quite possible that the first try may not be successful and requires repeated tries. Therefore, intended parents should have enough patience to have their child/children.
Fear of surrogate about surrogacy
Not getting enough compensation
Although, compensation should not be primary in surrogacy to motivate surrogacy. However many surrogates often have a feeling that the offered compensation is not enough for their service. Therefore, the surrogate should openly discuss with the surrogacy agency as well as the intended parents the compensation in case of a compensatory surrogacy arrangement before starting any medical procedure. This will not only satisfy the surrogate’s expectations but also essential for wholehearted involvement in the process.
Fear of carrying multiple
In surrogacy, the doctor often prefers to transfer more than one embryo for better implantation to achieve higher success in the IVF treatment. But this will increase to have multiple pregnancies. C-section is one of the risk factors for multiple pregnancies. If the surrogate’s health does not permit for C-section, then it will be discussed before the treatment process starts. Even the recovery period after a C-section is higher than normal delivery. Therefore, the medical cost along with days-off charges should be included in surrogate compensation. However, current medical advancement allows a single embryo transfer.
Administration of multiple medications
The surrogate needs to take multiple medications to prepare her physiology for better embryo implantation to achieve a successful IVF cycle outcome. The surrogate also needs to take different vitamin supplementation during pregnancy to support fetal growth.
Fear of miscarriage, abortion, or selective reduction
The chances of miscarriage, abortion, or selective reduction in surrogacy cannot be ignored. These risk factors must be discussed with the prospective surrogate before enrolling her in the surrogacy.
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.