Surrogate Mother

A surrogate mother is a woman who carries a child for an adoptive family with the intent to place the child with an adoptive couple after delivery. The child may or may not be biologically related to the surrogate mother. In a traditional surrogacy, the surrogate is related to the child. In gestational surrogacy, an embryo is implanted into her uterus and she's not related to the child.

Future adopters are sometimes referred to as the child's social parents during the pregnancy. Reasons to employ a surrogate mother may be something a gay couple wishes to pursue or a medical condition, such as infertility, or the mother may not have the time to be pregnant. Couples or individuals who want to adopt an infant any may not be qualified for placement with a healthy infant may opt for a surrogate mother as opposed to pursuing an adoption.

Surrogacy laws vary state to state, however, according to a report by the Council for Responsible Genetics, about nine children are born to surrogates in every state annually. The information for those statistics is manipulated from data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. California and New Jersey are the two states with the highest number of children adopted through surrogacy (95 and 92, respectively).

Some states do not allow surrogate mothers to be compensated for their services, due to the risk of exploitation. Some states allow compensation. On average, surrogate mothers make between $12,000 and $25,000.