Becoming a Surrogate Mother: Green Flags in Surrogacy
So, you’ve decided to become a surrogate mother in Colorado. Congrats! This is an exciting time and a life-changing experience you are about to embark on. If you’ve researched the surrogacy process and feel like you know the ins and outs of gestational surrogacy, then you’re ready to take the following steps.
You’re officially ready to start your surrogacy journey if you’ve met all the requirements! However, you may be feeling overwhelmed or unsure about where to go from here or what you should expect. What if it’s all too good to be true? What are some green flags to keep in mind so you know you’re in the right place?
Don’t worry! At Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado, we have a list of some of the green flags to keep in mind when you start this journey. Knowing how you deserve to be treated, whether it’s by your surrogacy agency or by intended parents, is essential in having a safe and successful surrogacy pregnancy.
Green Flags in Surrogacy Agencies
When you’ve decided to become a surrogate mother, the first thing you want to do is contact a surrogacy agency, like Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado. Having a surrogacy agency can help make the process a lot smoother for you.
Surrogacy Requirements
We expect our surrogate mothers to fulfill specific surrogate requirements to ensure you are physically and emotionally ready. If the surrogacy agency you work with is upfront and fully discloses the requirements, you need to fulfill without anything shady, that is a green flag.
Feeling Taken Care Of
You deserve to be taken care of on every level. That means legal, medical, and matching services as well as referrals, counseling, and so much more.
At Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado, we are here to make sure you are safe, healthy, and protected throughout the whole process. We are committed to creating a welcoming environment for you where you feel comfortable and excited to embark on the surrogacy process.
Upfront and Transparent
When you choose a surrogacy agency, it’s essential that they are upfront and transparent with you throughout the whole process. That means being clear about your surrogate compensation, your surrogacy requirements, and the steps you need to take throughout this journey.
At Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado, we prioritize transparency. This means communicating with you openly and honestly about your role as a surrogate.
Green Flags in Intended Parents
It’s essential to match with intended parents who respect you and your time and mesh well together. That means some of your values and beliefs do line up, so you can avoid a personality clash.
Since you and your intended parents will be together for at least nine months, it’s important to make sure everyone gets along.
Respectful of Your Time
As a surrogate mother, you are making an important decision to help others. You are giving up your time to help a couple or individual in need. That is a lot to ask from someone.
If the parents you are matched with knowledge and respect your time, and are grateful for your decision to become a surrogate mother, then that is a green flag. You deserve to be treated with respect during this process and your time.
Willing to Have Open Conversations
When you decide to join the surrogacy process, everyone is expected to have open and honest conversations. That means really reflecting on beliefs, values, desires, and needs from the surrogacy process.
Being open and honest during conversations is crucial because it will make the matching process more accessible. For example, suppose the intended parents can have open discussions with each other and with you. In that case, that means they are emotionally mature enough to be able to have hard conversations.
Communicates Well
If the intended parents you are matched with can communicate with you well and don’t leave you in the dark for days on end, that is a green flag. When you enter the surrogacy agreement, everyone has to be on the same page when it comes to communication.
That means being there for necessary appointments on time and submitting paperwork when needed. Those are all signs of intended parents that are ready to be parents.
Trusting Your Gut
At Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado, we are transparent with you and provide numerous services to help make sure your surrogacy process is easy, safe, and successful. Trusting your gut is the most important thing.
If you are interested in learning more about your gestational surrogacy options, contact Adoption and Surrogacy Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Text us: 720-371-1099, Call us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!