
Intended Parent FAQ

Please check out our FAQ below, which answers some of the most common questions we hear from Intended Parents. If you don’t see your question, please contact us and we will assist you.
We offer highly pre-screened surrogates with minimal wait time and low risk of match breaks. Our thorough pre-screening includes background checks, home evaluations, psychological assessments, insurance reviews, and medical record pre-approvals by IVF nurses.
Matches can occur in just 1 week to 1 month, with 3–5 new surrogates added weekly and 60% returning for a second journey. Our low or no retainer fee makes starting your journey easier and more affordable.
Proven success: 95% of surrogates are pre-approved by IVF clinics, 90% medically cleared, and 99% of match meetings result in a successful connection. Multilingual support is available in English, Spanish, and Mandarin.
The key difference lies in genetics.
In Gestational Surrogacy, the gestational carrier (surrogate) has no biological connection to the baby. An embryo—created through IVF using the intended parents’ or donors’ egg and sperm—is transferred to the surrogate’s uterus. She carries the pregnancy but is not genetically related to the child. This is the most common and widely accepted form of surrogacy in the U.S.
In contrast, traditional surrogacy involves the surrogate using her own egg, making her both the genetic and the birth mother. This method typically uses artificial insemination, not IVF. Because of the genetic link, traditional surrogacy raises more complex legal and emotional issues and is much less common today.
For clarity, legal protection, and emotional peace of mind, gestational surrogacy is considered the safer and more secure path—both for intended parents and surrogates.
The length of the process varies depending on several factors, such as the success of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, the matching process, legal requirements, and more. Typically, intended parents should expect the journey to take 1½ years or more from the time they sign the Retainer Agreement to the birth of their child.
All prospective Intended Parents start with filling out an application and schedule a consultation with our Client Relations Manager to share your stories and better understand the surrogacy roadmap, review our programs and options, and also answer any questions regarding the Intended Parents’ journey to parenthood.
Absolutely! At Giving Tree, we consider it an honor and a privilege to help Intended parents, whether single or LGBTQ+, from a variety of backgrounds - regardless of sexual oriental, age, or nationalities - to achieve your dreams of starting a family.
A variety of factors such as the health and viability of your embryo, the fertility history of your surrogate, and the clinic can all influence surrogacy success rates. In some cases, the clinic will also perform multiple embryo transfers until a healthy pregnancy is achieved.
At Giving Tree, our experienced teams and the clinics we work with will analyze, guide, and help you along the way to provide you the best chances of achieving your dream.
Our HEART Matching Approach
At Giving Tree, our HEART Surrogacy Process is designed to blend compassion with efficiency, ensuring every journey is thoughtful, personalized, and successful.
Holistic Understanding: We take time to know the stories, needs, and aspirations of both Intended Parents and Surrogates, creating meaningful and lasting matches.
Expedited Matching: With the fastest matching times in the industry, you gain immediate access to surrogates who fit your unique criteria.
Aligned Values: We carefully match based on personality, communication styles, and shared views on important decisions, fostering harmony throughout the journey.
Rigorous Selection: Surrogates’ medical records are reviewed and pre-approved with IVF clinics before matching, minimizing risks and maximizing success rates.
Trust Building: By encouraging openness and connection, we strengthen the bond between Intended Parents and Surrogates, ensuring trust that lasts beyond the surrogacy journey.
Together, these elements form the HEART of our approach—giving you confidence, clarity, and the best chance to achieve your dream of parenthood.
Relationship building is the core belief at Giving Tree. We encourage maintaining meaningful communication with your surrogate throughout the pregnancy via phone, text, virtual meetings, or in-person meetings and, if preferred by both parties, after the baby’s birth. Surrogacy is an emotional journey, and nothing trumps the precious friendship formed with your surrogate throughout this experience.
Most surrogates will deliver at a hospital near their home for convenience since most of our surrogates already have an existing relationship with their obstetrician and gynecologist. In other cases, the decision comes down to decisions made by the insurance company and their network of approved providers and hospitals.
Whether an Intended Parent can participate in the labor process will depend on the hospital policy and the comfort level of the surrogate.
The number of visits for international intended parents depends on your preference. The most important and mandatory visit is for the birth of your child(ren). Prior to that, some intended parents choose to accompany their surrogate to the embryo transfer or the 20-week ultrasound scan, but these visits are not mandatory.
Giving Tree Surrogacy will coordinate these appointments and keep you updated on any progress.
We recommend staying at least 2–4 weeks after delivery to allow enough time for any medical and legal work to be completed. This will also allow time for the issuance of your baby’s birth certificate, SSN, passport, and other travel documents needed.
We recruit only healthy, dedicated surrogates who are already mothers and capable of carrying a healthy pregnancy.
All potential surrogates undergo thorough pre-screening, including in-depth interviews, criminal background checks, psychological assessments, medical records review by IVF professionals, insurance verification, OBGYN clearance, virtual home evaluations, and drug testing. This rigorous process confirms that they are emotionally, medically, and legally prepared, giving you confidence and peace of mind throughout your surrogacy journey. Learn more about surrogate requirements here.
While there is really no difference in success rates between using a first-time egg donor and a proven egg donor, a proven donor is someone who has gone through the entire egg donation process and the cycle has resulted in a viable pregnancy. Proven egg donors will generally receive higher compensation for their “proven” status. Using a proven donor over a first-time donor will not necessarily guarantee success, but it does offer some additional reassurance.
At Giving Tree Surrogacy, selecting an egg donor begins with choosing the approach that best fits your journey. Our Egg Donation Program offers
Fresh Egg Donation, where eggs are retrieved after ovarian stimulation and used immediately, providing a potentially higher number of eggs for fertilization.
Frozen Egg Donation, where eggs are retrieved, vitrified, and stored for later use, offering immediate availability and more predictable outcomes.
Once you review donor profiles within your chosen option, our team will guide you in making a confident match.
It is very easy to over-think when choosing your egg donor. There may not be that “perfect” match.
The important factors when choosing your egg donor include age, availability, medical history, personality, location, and most important physical characteristics (such as eye, hair and skin color as well as blood type) that match yours and your family’s.
Giving Tree Surrogacy is committed to providing the most optimal conditions for Intended Parents looking to grow your family through egg donation. All of our egg donors must meet criteria that include age, weight, family history, lifestyle, education and schedule flexibility requirements.
In screening our egg donors, we follow very strict guidelines set forth by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. All of our donors are personally interviewed and counseled prior to including them in our pool of egg donors, and we do everything in our power to ensure each donor fully understands the commitment required.
Read more about our requirements for our egg donors here
As long as both the egg donor and the Intended Parent are comfortable with the arrangement, you can elect to have as little or as much contact as you like.
Our legal team will draft an agreement and contract covering medical procedures, reimbursements, and relationship with the child/children once you are matched with your gestational surrogate or egg donor.
Once you have joined Giving Tree family, our legal team will act as your counsel for all legal matters relating to your surrogacy in the United States. In all cases, you must have wills finalized before embryo transfer to ensure guardian care for your child in unfortunate event of your death.
Legal works might also include, but not limited to: a judgment of paternity, a pre-birth order, a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity, a custody orders, or an adoption. Our legal team will represent you in any negotiations to finalize your parental rights.
Many surrogacy friendly states such as California will allow Intended Parents to a pre-birth order that will allow the hospital to enter the intended parent’s name on the birth certificate. In some other States or instances, there will be additional legal work which will require the intended parents name to be added on the birth certificate after the birth of the child/ children.
Some States will also require same sex couples to submit a second parent adoption application so both parents name will be listed on the birth certificate.
If you undergo gestational surrogacy, our legal team will constitute the pre-birth order, which establishes your parental rights and the surrogate’s relinquishment of the baby/ babies so your surrogate will not have any parental rights to the baby.
In rare cases where a surrogate has strongly bonded with your child during pregnancy, an agency counseling and support services can be provided to help both parties overcome any anxiety during the journey.
Still have more questions before starting your journey?
We understand choosing surrogacy is a very important decision filled with questions and research. Click below to contact us with your questions, or schedule a free, no-obligation exploratory consultation to make sure this is the right path for you.