Qualifications for Surrogacy

by sylvia Pena
(santa clarita, ca)

I want to be a surrogate mother however based on my age (44) along with financial status it's impossible.

Im a very healthy mother of five healthy children including a set of twins, all births were natural delivery, no complications!

Reply by Rayven
Unfortunately, surrogacy is not right for everyone. Women over 40 who would like to be a surrogate mother usually only qualify if they've recently had a child, or if they are acting as a surrogate for a family member.

Why? Surrogacy is extremely expensive. Its hard for a set of intended parents to be able to financially take a chance on a woman over 40, as fertility decreases and complications increase.

As to financial status, women who are on public assistance of any kind, including Medicaid, do not qualify for surrogacy. Why? Well, the most practical reason is that surrogacy compensation can jeopardize/eliminate the ability to collect public assistance.

There are additional reasons for the income qualifications, having to do with the temptation to use public benefits which is considered fraud, and the implication that surrogate mothers are "poor" and being "taken advantage of".

And another important consideration: the compensation in surrogacy is never guaranteed. A surrogate mother can work with a set of intended parents for upwards of a year without seeing a single cent of compensation. A woman who "needs" compensation as a form of income could be under a great amount of stress during the process, which is not a good thing while trying to become pregnant.