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Adoption or Surrogacy: How We Can Help With Both Processes

Introducing American Surrogacy

As a hopeful parent dreaming about a child, your heart has already expanded – if you are ready to grow your family, you can share your love with a newborn through adoption or surrogacy.

You can click or call:

And get free help from a professional, 24/7.

While American Adoptions and American Surrogacy are separate organizations, they were founded upon many of the same principles: support, education, care and communication, and always with your family's best interest at the forefront of everything we do.

We have helped create more than 13,000 families through surrogacy or adoption, and we can help you, too.

Read on to learn more about surrogacy, and the differences between surrogacy and adoption.

Potential birth mothers who are interested in adoption can click here or call 1-800-ADOPTION to connect with one of our professionals today.

And potential surrogate mothers can click here. You can also reach one of our surrogacy professionals at 1-800-875-BABY.

What is Surrogacy?

Surrogacy is an arranged pregnancy using a surrogate and any combination of the intended parents’ or a donor’s genetic materials. An embryo is created via in vitro fertilization, and it is then transferred to the surrogate’s uterus.

American Surrogacy specializes in gestational surrogacy. We provide the surrogacy experience you deserve, with the shortest match times, fixed fees and personal support.

How Does the Surrogacy Process Work?

While there are many similarities between the adoption and surrogacy processes, the steps in the surrogacy process are unique.

  1. First, both prospective intended parents and surrogates must each pass their own extensive screening processes. American Surrogacy requires intended parents to pass background checks to help ensure they are prepared for surrogacy and parenthood. Prospective surrogate mothers must also pass an in-home assessment, as well as multiple background checks, a psychological screening, a medical screening, and American Surrogacy’s own screening process.
  2. The next step is finding a surrogate. American Surrogacy will help you create your Intended Parent Profile and will show it to our waiting surrogates, who’ve already been approved and entered into our program.

If a surrogate shows interest in your family, we will present you with her profile to see if interest is reciprocated. Once approved by each party, a match is made. The surrogate will then undergo another medical screening to ensure she is prepared for the medical process ahead.

  1. Once she is cleared, the legal process of drafting contracts will begin. These contracts establish legal parentage of the child, and set up intended parents to make medical and insurance decisions, among other purposes. These contracts are then approved by the courts.
  2. After the contracts are signed, the medical process can begin. The surrogate will be given fertility hormones to prepare herself for pregnancy and to synchronize the intended mother or donor’s fertility cycles. When the time comes, the intended mother or donor’s egg will be fertilized by the intended father or donor’s sperm to create an embryo, which will generally incubate for 2—5 days until it is transferred to the surrogate.

Many families considering adoption vs. surrogacy ultimately choose surrogacy because they have leftover embryos to use in this process. If intended parents have already created embryos in previous rounds of IVF, in most cases a fresh embryo transfer cycle is not needed.

Just as with adoption, surrogacy specialists will be directly involved in every step of the surrogacy process, providing proactive support and guidance to ensure the most successful experience possible.

Why Choose American Surrogacy?

During our more than 30 years of completing families through adoption, we’ve strived to continue to improve the adoption process for both adoptive families and birth parents alike. American Surrogacy has adopted many of the services that have led to American Adoptions’ success, including:

Low Wait Times – Our average wait time is 30-90 days, with many intended parents matching even quicker than that. While other agencies may make you wait a year (or more) for a match, we believe you’ve already waited long enough for your family.

One-Time Match Fee – In the event of a failed pregnancy or surrogacy, most surrogacy professionals require the intended parents to pay a fee to find a new match with a surrogate — but not at American Surrogacy. Our intended parents pay a one-time matching fee that remains until a successful pregnancy occurs, regardless of how many attempts and how many surrogates are needed.

Unrivaled Support – Your surrogacy specialist will be directly involved throughout each step of the surrogacy process by helping you decide if surrogacy is right for your family, finding surrogates who best match your preferences and goals, setting up and overseeing egg, sperm and embryo donors, and facilitating contact between you and the surrogate to ensure a perfect match. Our professionals also have unique experience in both processes of adoption and surrogacy, meaning they can provide unparalleled advice in why to choose surrogacy over adoption (or vice versa) in your situation.

Extensive Pre-Screening – From psychological screenings, to in-home visits, to medical evaluations with a reproductive endocrinologist, our screening process ensures the surrogates we work with are physically, medically and emotionally prepared for surrogacy, unlike many who are found overseas or independently of a surrogacy professional.

Licensed, Qualified Legal Counsel – American Surrogacy partners with a vast network of attorneys across the county who specialist in assisted reproductive technologies, many of whom are members of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys (AAARTA). Both you and your surrogate will be provided with your own attorney, who will be abreast on the laws of the state in which your surrogacy occurs, will ensure you understand the language in the contracts before signing and will be your legal counsel throughout this process.

“You need someone that you’re going to trust to choose a surrogate for you, and American Surrogacy was the only agency I felt comfortable with and was genuine enough for me to choose over the other agencies. I spoke to many surrogacy agencies — small and big — and none of them made me feel the way American Surrogacy made me feel.” — Nicholas, intended parent

For more information about surrogacy, or if you are trying to decide whether adoption or surrogacy is best for your family, please call 1-800-ADOPTION or click here to connect with a surrogacy professional.

Disclaimer
Information available through these links is the sole property of the companies and organizations listed therein. American Adoptions provides this information as a courtesy and is in no way responsible for its content or accuracy.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do we need to retain our own attorney?

No, American Adoptions has established relationships with some of the best adoption attorneys in the nation. Because adoption laws vary from state to state and between counties, it is important to utilize the services of an adoption attorney who specializes in the state where the adoption will finalize, which is unknown until you match with an expectant mother. You have the right to retain your own attorney, but doing so may be an additional, unnecessary expense.

Can we choose the gender of our baby?

American Adoptions does not allow gender specificity in adoption. Any family who wishes to be gender-specific in their adoption should contact us at 1-800-ADOPTION and ask about the possibility of an exception waiver before taking any other steps toward adoption with our agency. Any families who do receive an exception to be gender-specific may also incur an additional fee, which helps cover the additional advertising costs of such a request.

Please note that gender specificity will likely increase your wait time significantly.

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