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Surrogacy Birth Guide – From the Hospital to Baby Coming Home

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Welcoming a new baby into the world through surrogacy is both a joyful and involved process. The path from the hospital to bringing your baby home can feel both exciting and overwhelming as you navigate the steps, processes, and emotions involved.

This guide is designed to provide both surrogates and intended parents with a clear roadmap, practical tips, and heartfelt advice to make the transition as smooth and stress-free as possible.

Planning in the Weeks Leading Up to Baby’s Due Date

Organizing essential tasks and preparations in the weeks leading up to the baby’s due date helps you feel more in control during a chaotic time.

Intended Parents Travel to Surrogate’s Hometown

The intended parents should plan on arriving to the city where the surrogate lives between 36 – 38 weeks of pregnancy. The baby will be delivered at the hospital in the hometown where she lives.

Register with the Delivery Hospital

The surrogate should register with the hospital in the weeks before delivery. This allows the hospital administration to verify the health insurance and make sure everything is ready to go for delivery.

Schedule a Hospital Tour

Before any signs of labor have started, the surrogate should schedule a hospital tour for herself and the intended parents together. This way everyone knows where to go on the day labor begins, and it will also give you the chance to speak to the hospital staff about their surrogacy protocols.

Hospital Bags

Both parties will need their own hospital bags. The surrogate’s hospital bag will contain items for her own self, and the intended parents will pack for themselves and the baby.

Car Seat and Stroller

All parents must have an installed car seat (or know how to install a car seat) in order to leave the hospital with the baby. Some surrogacy parents may choose to buy a car seat in the city where the surrogate lives, or they may want to rent baby gear because they have additional items at home.

Legal Parentage Paperwork

I have another guide that goes into the legal parentage paperwork that intended parents need to take legal custody of the baby when it’s born. This includes pre-birth order, post-birth order, birth certificate process and passport and visa information for international parents.


Checking Into the Hospital for Labor and Delivery

It’s baby time! At the time of check-in, everyone is feeling mixed emotions of excitement and nervous energy. These practical tips can help with logistics and communication between the surrogate, intended parents and hospital staff.

Everyone’s Names and Roles on the Board

When you check into the hospital for delivery, make sure the nurse writes the names of all the parties on the board. It should also say next to the names who is the surrogate and who are the parents. This avoids the surrogate having to explain the situation over and over again to each hospital staff member.

Surrogate and Intended Parents Will Share a Hospital Room During Labor

Typically the surrogate and the intended parents will share a hospital room while labor is happening. After the baby is born, the surrogate will be transferred to her own maternity recovery room, and the parents will have their own room with the baby.

The surrogate and the parents should speak in advance about whether or not the parents will be in the room when pushing is happening. The surrogate has the right to ask for privacy, or she can invite the parents to be present at birth. If the surrogate wants privacy during labor, the intended parents will wait in the public waiting room.

After birth, private rooms for the intended parents are based on availability of rooms. If the maternity floor is full, then there may not be a room available right away. In this case, they can use a curtain to split up the surrogate’s room into two areas, so that both parties can have a little privacy.

Cutting the Umbilical Cord and Skin-to-Skin

All parties should speak in advance of delivery about who will cut the umbilical cord, and who will be doing skin-to-skin when the baby is born. The parent planning on doing skin-to-skin should either be wearing a hospital gown on the top, or having an open in the front shirt. Make sure to communicate these plans with the nursing staff and doctor.


Breastfeeding and Baby Formula

The surrogate and the intended parents should speak in advance about any plans to breastfeed, pumping or formula. The intended parents should speak to the hospital staff about supplying liquid newborn formula and feeding supplies for the baby during their hospital stay. Make sure to take note of the formula brand so that you can continue the same formula at home. You want to avoid abrupt changes to their feeding if possible.


Discharge from the Hospital

If there are no medical complications, the surrogate usually goes home first within a day or two.

The parents will be discharged when the pediatrician feels that the baby is ready to leave. They will have follow-up appointments scheduled with weight check-ins and wellness care.

In Conclusion

Once the baby is born, it marks the end of a long journey. The parents begin their new life into parenthood, and the surrogate begins her postpartum healing. The end of the journey is really just the beginning!

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New to surrogacy?  Read our post on surrogate requirements here.

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