Many kind-hearted women become surrogates because of the genuine emotional reward from helping a couple realize their dream of having children. TLC Surrogacy encourages women from all backgrounds to apply to become surrogates. The step-by-step process to becoming a surrogate is:
1. Application and Personal Photographs (top ^)
If you meet the minimum qualifications listed below, then your first step is to apply for the TLC Surrogacy program as a gestational surrogate.
To become a surrogate gestational carrier, you must:
Before you fill out an online application, think carefully about your willingness to be pregnant and to commit a year or more of your life to helping aspiring parents have a baby (or babies). Although immensely rewarding for many who do it, being a surrogate is an intense, challenging, and emotional process. (Please note that as a gestational surrogate carrier, the baby is biologically the offspring of the parents - the baby has no genetic connection to you.)
To join the TLC Surrogacy surrogate gestational carrier program - and to help aspiring parents make an informed selection of their ideal surrogate - you must complete a comprehensive online application/questionnaire, which includes detailed questions about you and your health. This questionnaire should take roughly 45 minutes to an hour to complete online. Please answer all questions carefully and thoroughly. What you share is exactly what the intended parents will read.
We also ask that you provide photographs of yourself and your children to help aspiring parents in the selection process. The photographs should be in a digital (electronic) format allowing you to easily upload them to the TLC Surrogacy website.
Except for your name and other confidential identifying personal information, your completed application and photos will be seen by aspiring parents searching for someone of your characteristics to be their surrogate. Your name will not be revealed to the aspiring parents until you and the parents have mutually agreed to proceed with the surrogacy process.
2. Pre-Qualification (top ^)
TLC Surrogacy will review your online application to pre-qualify you as a surrogate gestational carrier candidate, and may also conduct an interview with you. Once pre-qualified, you will be notified via e-mail of your acceptance into the TLC Surrogacy community as a surrogate carrier candidate. Your application and photographs will then be made available online on the TLC Surrogacy secured website for review by registered aspiring parents looking for a surrogate offering the characteristics they seek.
3. Initial Selection by Aspiring Parents (top ^)
Selection of a surrogate carrier is an extremely subjective process. Aspiring parents usually seek a surrogate who is healthy and stable as well as someone they believe they can comfortably work with through the close, emotional process of surrogate pregnancy. There's no guarantee of when you will be selected as a surrogate carrier. You might be chosen in one week, one month, or one year from the time you have been accepted into the TLC Surrogacy surrogate gestational carrier program.
Once an aspiring parent indicates an interest in working with you as a surrogate, you will be immediately contacted by TLC Surrogacy to confirm your availability and willingness to be a surrogate. Brief description of the aspiring parents as well as the location of their IVF clinic will be provided to you for your information. You will be free to ask additional questions of the aspiring parents at that time.
4. Introduction to Aspiring Parents (top ^)
If you’re still interested in working with the aspiring parents, a three-way telephone conference call will then be scheduled with TLC Surrogacy, the aspiring parents and you. During this teleconference call, you and the aspiring parents will be able to get to know each other. A TLC Surrogacy consultant will be on the call with you to guide you through the process. If the telephone meeting is successful - if you, your domestic partner, and the aspiring parents remain interested in proceeding with the process - then TLC Surrogacy will ask the aspiring parents to complete their paperwork with TLC Surrogacy. Once the paperwork is completed, the identifying information for both parties will be released to one another. The aspiring parents will be encouraged to schedule a face-to-face meeting with you and your partner to further get to know each other.
5. Psychological Evaluation (top ^)
Once you are chosen by the aspiring parents as their surrogate carrier, you will be asked to meet with a licensed psychologist for an assessment of your mental and emotional readiness for the surrogacy process. This evaluation will be paid for by the aspiring parents. If you have a domestic partner, he/she will be asked to meet with the psychologist as well.
6. Contract Negotiation and Legal Review (top ^)
Your compensation for carrying and delivering the aspiring parent's biological baby is determined by you. Although being a surrogate is a priceless gift, most surrogates request - and most aspiring parents expect to compensate - $25,000 for a single birth and $30,000 for twins, in addition to expenses. Once you agree upon a fee with the aspiring parents, they will present a contract to you. (Note that the contract involves you and the aspiring parents only - not TLC Surrogacy.) You will then meet with an attorney of your choice, paid for by the aspiring couple, who will review the contract with you and negotiate any changes before you sign.
7. Embryo Transfer and Pregnancy (top ^)
Your menstrual cycle and the menstrual cycle of the biological mother will be synchronized using daily injections of Lupron. You will also be taking estrogen prior to ovulation, and the biological mother will be taking daily injections of fertility drugs. The development of her eggs will be monitored by daily blood work and ultrasounds.
The thickness of the lining of your uterus will be evaluated using blood tests and ultrasounds. Three days after the eggs have been retrieved from the biological mother and fertilized with the sperm of the biological father, the physician will transfer the embryos to you. Depending on the physician, you may then continue progesterone treatment
A pregnancy test will be taken approximately 10 days after the transfer of embryos to you. Once pregnant, you will carry the aspiring parents' baby (or babies) to term, maintaining a close, personal relationship with the parents throughout the process until delivery.
Apply Now to Become a Surrogate.