How the Surrogacy Journey Can Change You

There are many effects of surrogacy that are clear from the beginning of the process. Someone decides to make one of the most selfless choices in the world and help a family grow, becomes pregnant, and then a new child comes into the world! But the surrogacy journey changes a lot of things in a gestational carrier’s life forever that are more unexpected.

Grow Your Own Family

While they don’t bring home a child at the end of the surrogacy process, surrogates do bring home something equally life-changing. During the pregnancy, most gestational surrogates and their intended parents become incredibly close. Because of the need for constant communication, it’s natural that a friendship would form.

Many people describe their relationship with their intended parents after their surrogate journeys as akin to an extended family member. Often, they will make trips to visit and check in, even if they’re international! This adds a new branch to family trees as a new child is brought into the world.

Expanding your family this way may be unexpected, but those involved gain the confidence of a group of people who they know have their back.

Learn to Communicate Better

We all need to have good communication skills in our day-to-day lives, but in order to keep intended parents, doctors, and the agency in the loop, everyone involved needs to develop those skills even further. Surrogates find themselves able to express themselves more clearly and communicate better in all aspects of their life after their first journey.

Explaining the surrogacy journey to friends and family of all ages also factors into how this works, as they will have many questions. Exploring this topic with people who have never heard of it before will help illustrate a line of thinking that you might otherwise not have.

Finally, throughout the journey surrogates also need to be able to put their health and mental needs first. This means they will need to communicate extremely well with their family and partner in order to have a comfortable pregnancy. This can help lines of communication for other things in life as well.

Learn More About Your Health & Body

Due to the scientific nature of this pregnancy, surrogates will learn more about their body, its cycles, and how it works in greater detail than ever before. Preparing to be pregnant with IVF leads to a more intimate understanding of how the body works and what it takes.

Understanding expected baselines for pregnancies in surrogacy also helps people find where their own body differs. Perhaps they gain less weight than others while pregnant, or maybe they have a predisposition to gestational diabetes. This is important information to have for their own long-term health.

Changes in Your Confidantes

One of the big changes surrogates may experience post-surrogacy does impact the friend group and close family members. Surrogacy is not like any other pregnancy, where it is expected the pregnant woman will come home with a new family member, and many people refuse to understand the process.

Those involved may also notice close and deeper friendships with the people who made it a point to prioritize their needs during the surrogacy journey, even if they didn’t understand. These people are open-hearted and care about their own regardless of a decision like this.

Finding out who is truly with you is unexpected, but worth it.

Changes in Your Outlook

As a surrogate, you are interested in helping a family grow. However, many surrogates go into the process thinking that they will only do one pregnancy or help one couple grow their family, only to find after the birth that the sense of joy is so great that they want to do it again!

Likewise, many surrogates report a newfound sense of self and confidence after surrogacy that leaves them in a better mental spot than ever before. After giving such a beautiful gift, they understand the lengths that one person can go to to help another. 

Creating a Social Wave

Most people who become a surrogate are inspired by another person in their life that went through the same process. So, when going through the surrogacy process, surrogates also encourage the people around them to give the gift of love to another family in need.

Starting a wave of kindness is legacy-making, and something to be proud of.

Conclusion

Participating in a surrogacy journey will change far more than the lives of the intended parents. Over the course of the process, surrogates will learn a lot of things about themselves, the people in their lives, and the emotional strength that they possess.

Surrogacy is one of the kindest things anyone could do to help a family, and it’s for this reason that Simple Surrogacy is proud to help many families grow every year. If you’re interested in becoming a surrogacy and changing your life along with others, please visit us here.