The surrogate mother is the woman who offers to carry the baby of another person or couple in the process of gestational surrogacy. She is also called gestational carrier or host carrier. Although each country outlines its own conditions whether to accept a woman as surrogate, there are general conditions that will be mentioned in this article.
General conditions
In order to be able to perform as a surrogate mother in the process of gestational surrogacy, it is necessary to comply with certain basic requirements:
- Be older than 18-20 and younger than 40.
- Have gone through one pregnancy and delivery of an own chid without complications.
- Have at least a child of her own
- Enjoy good health
- Be emotionally prepared for surrogacy
These are the main conditions required from women who want to be surrogates. Although it is possible that in some countries other more specific requisites are established.
For example, there are places in which if the surrogate applicant is married, the husband’s consent is required. It is also usually required that the candidate has a clean crime and police record.
Surrogate profile
Bearing in mind the requisites mentioned, we can say that the most usual profile of a surrogate is a woman between 20 and 35 years old, mother of at least one child, healthy, with a clean police record and caring attitude.
Generally, women who want to become surrogates work, although there are some who are housewives as well. In any case, it is important that they have a middle level lifestyle, and therefore, they do not subject themselves to this process for mere economic reasons.
On the other hand, it is essential that the surrogate can choose freely the couple or person who she wishes to help. In this sense, there are some surrogates that set their own restrictions. For instance, there are women who only wish to carry the baby of heterosexual couples or people from their same country.
Another important item related to the surrogate is the relation that the intended parents will have with her during the pregnancy. There are couples that start a real friendship and consider the surrogate a member of the family, and some other surrogates prefer not to feel invaded in their private lives and distance themselves.