Some surrogate mothers are happy being a surrogate, giving the gift of life, and then moving on with their own lives.
Others are not. They want to do it again. But can a woman be a surrogate mother more than once?
Yes! Repeat surrogate mothers happen all the time. In fact, many intended parents view a successful previous surrogacy as a welcome sign, a valuable characteristic. They will often pay a premium for a repeat surrogate mother.
But there is a limit. More than once is good. A dozen times is not. In fact, you will never get to be a surrogate mother a dozen times. Let’s take a look at some of our requirements when deciding on a surrogate mother.
Surrogate Eligibility Criteria
We require all surrogate mothers to have given birth to a child of their own before we’ll even consider them. We don’t take dreamers. This is important, because the intended parents need to know that their surrogate is up to the task. Not every woman is.
Having previously delivered a child as a surrogate is a bonus, but not a requirement.
However, there is more to it than that. We look at the nature of those previous pregnancies. We take only those mothers whose pregnancies have been pleasant and enjoyable. We only work with mothers whose pregnancies have been successful, full-term healthy pregnancies.
For instance, we won’t work with mothers who have delivered before 35 weeks. Sorry, but that is just too risky.
We won’t take on mothers who have had complicated pregnancies or complicated deliveries. Those complications could show up again. Indeed, there is often the chance that the complications will get worse with subsequent pregnancies.
We won’t work with mothers who have had more than 3 C-sections. While a C-section does not imply risk, multiple C-sections sometimes do.
Most important to the question of being a surrogate mother more than once, we won’t work with a mother who has had five or more pregnancies. What does this mean for repeat surrogates?
Surrogate Multiparity Guidelines: Understanding the Limits
It means that if you’ve had one child of your own before becoming a surrogate, you can be a surrogate mother to four children.
It means that if you’ve had two children of your own before becoming a surrogate, you can be a surrogate mother to three children.
It means that if you’ve had three children of your own before becoming a surrogate, you can be a surrogate mother to two children.
It means that if you’ve had four children of your own before becoming a surrogate, you can be a surrogate mother to one child or twins.
In other words, you can be a surrogate up to four times, if you’ve had just one child of your own. But if you already have four children when you sign on as a surrogate, then you can be a surrogate only once.
If you’ve been pregnant five times already, we would not consider you for surrogacy.
The only exception to these rules would be if you had twins. Sometimes we will accept mothers who have given birth to healthy twins in 35 weeks or less, or who have borne five children, including a pair of twins. It all depends how smoothly the pregnancy and the delivery went. The final say on who is approved to become a surrogate mother is the fertility doctor at a couple’s clinic.
