Families Through Surrogacy conference on March 15, 2014 in San Francisco
This past weekend in San Francisco, intended parents and professionals in the third-party fertility joined together for a full day of education and networking. As official sponsors of the all-day event, members of the team from Donor Concierge and SurrogateRN enjoyed speaking with parents and other professionals.
Gail Sexton Anderson, founder of Donor Concierge and SurrogateRN, was a panelist for a session entitled “Scrambled Eggs”. The focus of the discussion was how intended parents can facilitate looking for an egg donor through different types of agencies, programs, and services that exist to support parents.
Other insightful sessions included discussions about the risks and other factors to consider when deciding on transferring one or two embryos, presented by Dr. Said Daneshmand, and some helpful tips for parents on selecting an IVF provider, by Dr. Guy Ringler.
The focus of the program was to help intended parents further their family-creation goals through surrogacy and to present options that exist both within the U.S. and internationally. Some points of interest for our team included the psychological traits of potential surrogates that optimize relationship-building with an intended parent. As Kim Bergman of Growing Generations pointed out, the best circumstance is when a surrogate views her role as integral and important and there is mutual respect between the surrogate and the intended parents throughout the process.
Another pertinent aspect, as highlighted by psychologist Hilary Hanafin, is the importance of intended parents remembering to express gratitude to their donor and/or surrogate at the end of the process. As Dr. Hanafin explained, many donors and surrogates find the most satisfaction not from the compensation they earn but from the sense of altruism they feel and the gratitude they receive from intended parents for their efforts.
We learned about international programs in egg donation and surrogacy and the pros and cons of each. While we work mainly with U.S. clinics, donor, and surrogacy agencies, we look forward to seeing how the international programs innovate and develop to provide third-party fertility options to intended parents.
Thank you to Families Thru Surrogacy for hosting this wonderful event! We encourage intended parents to browse their website for resources and dates of upcoming conferences. familiesthrusurrogacy.com
