Why Parents Are Waiting Longer For Surrogates

Intended Parents are waiting longer than ever before for their surrogacy journey to begin, and it has many worried about the future of their family. While surrogacy agencies are still helping people get connected every day to their carrier, there are some factors to keep in mind as you consider surrogacy for family planning.

Post-Pandemic Restrictions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many medical institutions put quarantine periods in place for deliveries. This means that surrogates may have to plan to spend 14 days away from their family and friends to deliver the baby. For many without reliable childcare or surrogate-friendly insurance, this made undergoing a surrogacy journey impossible.

In 2022, many of these restrictions are being loosened, though still in place. The restrictions are for the safety of everyone involved, especially the baby, so it is understandable why hospitals are hesitant to lift them. There is room for new improvements as time goes on and pandemic numbers lessen, but there is still a padded waiting time to find a surrogate because of it.

Increase in Anti-Surrogacy Rhetoric

Recently anti-surrogacy groups have been ramping up their rhetoric and presenting the worst-case scenarios in surrogacy to the public. Cases of gestational surrogates wanting the child, Intended Parents rejecting the child, and more flood the online space because of them. This has resulted in an increase in misunderstandings surrounding what surrogacy is and how it works. The best we can do is to try to dispel these rumors.

Anti-surrogacy representatives have also made a dent by spreading misinformation. Many countries have recently tightened their parentage and citizenship policies to make it near impossible for parents to use surrogacy as a family planning option. Even international surrogacy has been a target, making it more difficult to find a surrogate in another country.

These groups lack the knowledge of why surrogates do what they do, and focus on the compensation and adoption angles. This can scare off a lot of surrogates from ever reaching out or reading further into the process.

Lack of Awareness

There is so much stigma around infertility and alternate family planning, that many news outlets do not report on surrogacy or the surrogacy process. A lack of awareness of surrogacy means many people who love being pregnant don’t realize that they could help a family grow this way.

Some surrogacy cases have been entering the news lately, but they are directly linked to the Invasion of Ukraine. News outlets are focused on the children stuck in the country while it is under siege and the devastation of their families elsewhere in Europe. Unfortunately, this does not color surrogacy in the best light and does not inspire people to do it.

More surrogates are becoming interested in a surrogacy journey every day now that pandemic restrictions are lifting, and surrogacy has a shot to make a bigger name for itself in the public arena. For many Intended Parents waiting to match with their surrogate, the wait may be extended due to the many circumstances we are facing in the third year of the pandemic. Even now, more surrogates have started looking for Intended Parents this month than in the last three.

If you would like to learn more about surrogacy or becoming one of our Intended Parents, please follow this link.