• Gestational surrogacy – a surrogate is only the vessel and her eggs are not used in the conception. Fertilisation is outside of the body through IVF with either the commissioning parent's eggs or donor eggs being used for conception.
• Traditional surrogacy – a surrogate also donates her eggs to the commissioning parent. Fertilisation of the eggs is likely inside the body with the sperm being artificially inseminated into her.

As people find a need for becoming pregnancy via surrogate motherhood, they start researching and exploring the various options worldwide.  Surrogacy in South Africa offers extensive benefits for surrogate mothers and for the commissioning parents.

• Support of the surrogate's partner and/ or family
• Agreement on the fertility clinic. Please allow baby2mom to guide you about recommended clinics who specialise in surrogacy.
• Agreement on the surrogacy lawyer.  Surrogate greements are processed through recomended surrogacy attorney who specialise in surrogate contracts and have extensive experience in obtaining court order approvals for surrogacy contracts.
• Reimbursement of costs that directly relate to the surrogacy process
• Insurance and/ or medical cover for the surrogacy period
• Transport to and from the fertility clinic
• Agreement on whether the pregnancy will proceed in the event of abnormality or deformity
• Agreement on a potential multiple pregnancy
• Whether both the IP's will attend the internal scans for the surrogate and whether she is comfortable with a man attending internal scans
• How frequently the surrogate and IP will have contact
• Type of birth
• Whether the IP will attend the birth
• What exactly will happen at the birth and whether the surrogate will see/ hold the baby
• Continued contact after the birth
• Nature of relationship/ friendship
• Counselling for both surrogate and IP
• Number of IVF attempts and period between IVF attempts
• Next steps in the event of the pregnancy not proceeding for whatever reason
• Actions in the event of death of the IP
• Discussions in the event of the IP's relationship status changing during the course of the pregnancy – due to divorce, death, etc.
• The agreed gynaecologist after 12 weeks – if the surrogate is located in Johannesburg, she will have appointments with the fertility specialist for the first three months
• Involvement of the surrogate in the event of prematurity
• Breastfeeding and/ or breast milk - it is not encouraged that a surrogate breastfeed of donate her breast milk as this create bonding issues. It is ideal that the surrogate's body start to feel normal as quickly as possible.
• When the contract/ agreement is determined as concluded
• Any aspects of special mention.

Once commissioning parent and surrogate have agreed to necessary aspects, next steps include the medical and psychological screening. The surrogate is required to be medically and psychologically screened to ensure that she understands the surrogacy process and is medically fit to carry a baby.

The commissioning parent needs a medical requirement to proceed with surrogacy.

Once the medical and psychological reports are ready, these can be presented to support the legal surrogate motherhood agreement. This surrogate agreement is presented to the High Court for approval before any fertility treatment can proceed. Upon the approval of the court, the commissioning parent has parental rights and responsibilities, which means that they can register the child with their names on the birth certificate and the surrogate mother has no further responsibilities.

The restrictions are that:

• Commissioning parents and surrogates must have South African domicilium.  This means residence in South Africa as well as intent to have permanent residence in South Africa.
• The surrogate must have had at least one child and have given birth
• The partner of the surrogate must be supportive of the process.
• The gametes or genes of at least one of the commissioning parents must be used in the fertility treatment.

Who Needs a Surrogate Mother:

• Homosexual male persons - who will also need egg donation
• Woman requiring IVF treatment who will require hormonal treatment and whose medical condition will be adversely affected by the artificial hormones
• Persons exposed to medical risk by being pregnant
• Woman who have had a full or partial hysterectomy.

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