4 common misconceptions about surrogates

Surrogacy can be a misunderstood subject. Here are several misconceptions about surrogates, along with explanations as to why they are untrue:

1. The surrogate will want to keep the child.

There are very few surrogates who decide they want to keep the children they bear.

There is a lengthy process that surrogates must go through in order to be considered qualified. These women undergo psychological tests to ensure they are mentally and emotionally capable of carrying and delivering a child who will go to another parent.

Even if the parents are concerned about the surrogate changing her mind, they should have surrogacy lawyers to aid them along the way. The lawyer will make sure the legal documentation terminates any biological rights the surrogate may have.

2. Surrogates are only after money.

Surrogates are compensated for carrying the children. That’s only fair. After all, they go through the mental and emotional stress of carrying a child. They will endure morning sickness and go through the strenuous process of labor.

There are women out there who become surrogates because they know the joy of carrying and delivering children. They understand the heartache of a couple that desperately wants children, but is physically incapable to do so.

These women want to help support people who want children.

3. The surrogate won’t care about the child.

Some people believe the opposite of the first misconception. They believe the surrogate won’t care enough about the child she is carrying.

However, the emotional attachment and connection the surrogate has for the child she is carrying will cause her to care for the unborn child as if it is her own. Again, surrogates go through a lengthly screening process in order to ensure they are mentally, physically and emotionally capable of caring for a child during pregnancy, delivering that child and then giving him or her to his or her intended parent(s).

4. The child is biologically related to the surrogate.

This is a difficult subject to tackle. There are different ways to impregnate a surrogate.

Traditionally, the surrogate was related to the child. Now, there are technologies that make gestational surrogacy possible. Gestational surrogacy means the eggs and the sperm make an embryo.

That embryo is then implanted in the surrogate. This makes the surrogate simply the carrier of another person’s baby. So, just because the surrogate is carrying a child, that doesn’t mean she’s actually biologically related to that child.

It’s important to reveal the truth behind surrogacy. Surrogacy is to be talked about and celebrated. It gives hope to families who are unable to have children, and it empowers women who want to help other couples.

via Elite Daily