How A Surrogacy Attorney Can Help You

Video Transcription

Speaker: Stephanie Brinkley

My name is Stephanie Brinkley. I'm a fertility and family law attorney in Charleston, South Carolina. Today, I'm going to talk to you about how an attorney can help guide you through the surrogacy process when building your family.

Surrogacy is both a scary and exciting process. There are so many questions that have to be answered. How do you find a surrogate? What kind of terms go into a surrogacy agreement? How do you make sure that your names go on the birth certificate when the child is born? When working with a surrogacy attorney, you can get the answer to all of these questions and have confidence as you move forward with your family building process.

First and foremost, you need to know how to find a surrogate. Typically, intended parents find their surrogates and want them three ways. First, you can work with a surrogacy agency. A surrogacy agency can help match you with a compatible surrogate to help you through this journey.

Secondly, some parents find their surrogates using social media. Social media has become a very popular way of connecting with possible candidates, who may be in your region or maybe across the country. Finally, the third way of finding a surrogate is just to share with your inner circle. Once you tell your family and friends about your family building process, and that you're open to the idea of surrogacy, you might be pleasantly surprised who steps forward to offer services to you.

The second most important point when working with a surrogacy attorney is developing a surrogacy agreement. There are several key issues that need to be addressed in an agreement and your attorney will help get you through that process. First does the surrogate have insurance? Is it surrogate friendly? Can she use it for the journey or will you need to purchase a private policy?

Secondly, what about the surrogate's conduct before an embryo transfer? You want to make sure that she's going to follow doctor's orders. Finally, you want to know what the compensation expectations are for the surrogate, things like lost wages during bedrest, perhaps maternity clothing allowance. These are all things that go into a surrogacy agreement and your attorney will help you with this process.

The final important reason of working with a surrogacy attorney to help you is you want to make sure that you have proper parentage orders. Parentage orders are the gold star for your journey. You want to make sure that you are properly recognized as the legal parents of your child, and that your names go on the birth certificate. This is what all parents want and should have. Why is this important? Well, it's important for a couple of reasons.

First of all, you want to make sure that you're acknowledged in the hospital for delivery and have the opportunity to be present for your child's birth. Secondly, you want to make sure that you will be able to discharge your baby from the hospital and take the baby home. And finally, as I mentioned before, you want to make sure that your name is on the birth certificate, as you want to be recognized as the legal parents and legal parentage also impacts health insurance coverage for your child. So when you're working with an attorney, they will make sure that your name is on the birth certificate and you satisfy all these requirements so that you can take your dream baby home.

If you're considering surrogacy and you're both excited and overwhelmed about the process, please reach out to our office. You can go online at BrinkleyLawFirmllc.com and fill out an online consultation request, and a member of my team will help schedule you for a consultation, and we'll start talking about building your family.