Travel is a hot topic when setting your surrogacy contract up. You may have vacations, family reunions, and other events planned. However, not all Intended Parents are okay with their surrogate traveling while pregnant with their child, and there also may be some legal restrictions so you deliver in the state where your legal contracts are in place.
Anyone who has been pregnant knows that traveling up until 36 weeks is generally considered safe by doctors and is allowed during your own pregnancy. While there are some risks to a pregnant woman’s health involved in travel, that risk is the parents’ call. In surrogacy, the person carrying the child is not the parent, so those expectations should be set openly and honestly.
Most contracts will dictate that an obstetrician approve any travel before leaving, and expectations for travel for Intended Parents have a wide range. Some Intended Parents are absolutely fine with travel until the medically mandated point that the surrogate stays in one place. Others are fine with the surrogate traveling as long as it’s within or close to their home state or delivery hospital. Some are not okay with traveling more than 250 miles from the delivery hospital under any circumstance, even an emergency. Surrogates and Intended Parents should discuss their travel expectations before contracts to be on the same page..
We advise that any surrogates clear their family calendar or reschedule family events to be located at their own home during a surrogacy, just for their own ease.
Medical care is unreliable and unfamiliar in foreign countries. Thus, almost all surrogacy contracts restrict International travel at the very onset of the surrogacy. There are risks to being in another country, such as surrogacy-unfriendly laws, restrictive medical care, and difficulty returning home if there are complications.
Domestic travel restrictions tend to occur between 24-30 weeks of pregnancy. Domestic travel can be restricted to avoid travel to states with surrogacy-unfriendly laws and to remain close to the hospital you will be delivering at.
While maintaining the comfort of the Intended Parents about their future child is important, your comfort is also a priority with travel restrictions. If you feel that you need to have a certain amount of mobility domestically, make sure you speak about it with the parents and your attorney.
If you have any questions about travel during surrogacy, contact us.
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