Is There Any Chance A Gestational Surrogate Mother Can Be Related To The Baby She Carries?

Everywhere you look people are talking about surrogate motherhood

. Our actors and actresses are building their families with the help of gestational surrogacy. Commercial surrogacy is in the movies, on talk shows, and in our courts.

But there is still an awful lot to understand about the process of surrogacy. I am often asked questions from those new to the community, who wonder the same things that many people out there want to know. One popular series of questions concerns the parentage of a baby born via gestational surrogacy.

Is that baby in any way, shape or form related to the gestational surrogate who carried him? Will he resemble her at all? Is it possible for the IVF transfer to some how get messed up and the surrogate mother actually end up being the biological mother of the child?

First, it's important to note that there are two forms of commercial surrogacy: traditional surrogacy, where the surrogate mother is also the biological mother of the child, and gestational surrogacy, where the surrogate mother goes through IVF to get pregnant with the biological child of the intended parents. In this article, we are talking specifically about the more common gestational surrogacy.

In a gestational surrogacy, the surrogate mother is not biologically related to the baby in any way (unless she is carrying a baby for a family member). The baby will not resemble her or carry any of her traits or characteristics. A Caucasian surrogate mother could carry the baby of an African American couple, and the baby would be born 100% African American,. The surrogate mother is simply an oven.

Eggs are extracted from the intended mother (the woman who the baby will actually go home with) and sperm from the intended father. These are then combined in a laboratory to produce embryos. One or more of these complete embryos, these tiny human beings, will be transferred into the womb of the surrogate mother. Since the baby is already "made" before coming in contact with the surrogate mother, there is no way to get her eggs and those of the intended mother confused.

So that answers most of the questions regarding parentage in commercial surrogacy. But there is one caveat: a gestational surrogate mother could, indeed, become pregnant with her own child instead of the intended parent's. And yes, it does happen (rarely).

How? In gestational surrogacy, a surrogate mother is required to abstain from intercourse with her husband for several weeks prior to and following the IVF transfer. If she were to break this rule, and have intercourse at the wrong time, she could inadvertently become pregnant with her own child. This child would be related to the surrogate and her husband only; she would not have a biological connection to the intended parents whatsoever.

This is why it is so very important to understand how commercial surrogacy and specifically gestational surrogacy work before getting involved in surrogate motherhood. It's a beautiful process, but those entering into it need not take it lightly.

by: Rayven Perkins

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