While Growing Families has been running Surrogacy seminars in Auckland and sometimes Wellington for many years, 2024 marks the first time this has been expanded to a full information day, run by a local committee of surrogates and parents.
The weekend of 16 March is a chance for the country’s surrogacy community to come
together socially in Auckland and to support each other on their journeys to parenthood.
On Friday night, 15 March, there will be an ‘all-welcome’ get together at The Cav, so
surrogates, donors, IPs and parents can catch up. On the Saturday, surrogates, parents and intended parents will gather at the Parnell Hotel for a day devoted to education and support.
The day will focus particularly on local NZ surrogacy, as well as the US, Canada and the
emerging options in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Each of these countries offer surrogacy to gay singles and couples. Each also has legal
regulations allowing the issue of birth certificates with both intended parents named.
Capitalising on the favourable court rulings in Buenos Aires, Argentina has experienced rapid growth in the last year alone, with new agencies appearing in quick succession.
For anyone considering engaging in surrogacy, there is a huge amount of trust required –
trust in the process, your surrogate and the professionals supporting you. Your surrogate
and support team may be far from where you live. In this situation, trust is even more
important. A renowned NZ counsellor will run a session on relationship building within your surrogacy team.
But trust is not the only ingredient for success. So are setting realistic expectations, working with strong embryos and well-screened surrogates. So the information day will feature three of North America’s most popular IVF professionals discussing the various scenarios in which they can assist.
This will cover the range of IVF plans available, success rates, costs, shipping already created embryos, making embryos from scratch, factors to consider in donor selection and surrogate screening. The IVF process can be expensive, but Lane Fertility from the US will be providing one lucky Auckland event attendee with a free IVF cycle, significantly reducing the overall cost.
The day will also feature sessions on the latest trends in US and Canadian surrogacy, along
with a similar session on the trends in Argentine surrogacy. Each is designed to give you
realistic expectations of the process from leaders in the field.
Perhaps most important will be the break-out sessions and panels of recent NZ parents and local surrogates discussing their experiences, the ups and downs of their journeys and what
they learned along the way. You will meet recent gay dads and in some instances even the
surrogates who carried for them.
So whether you are part way along or still considering options, don’t miss this once-yearly
opportunity.
For more info, head to the Growing Families website. You can also stay up to date by following Growing Families on Facebook & Instagram.
