Surrogacy is a boon to all those childless couples who cannot have a baby without the help of an external carrier. The intended mother usually fails to carry the pregnancy and requires another woman to carry the baby during the gestation on her behalf. There are still some controversies related to the use of surrogate mothers in order to have a baby. The legal process related to surrogacy is different in all countries. However, surrogacy has become a popular option for all those aspiring parents fighting various fertility problems.

Surrogate Mother

There are two kinds of Surrogate Mother:

1. Traditional surrogate

2. Gestational surrogate

Traditional Surrogate

A traditional surrogate gets artificially inseminated with the intended father’s sperm. It may be the husband or male partner of the intended mother. She carries the baby in her womb for the entire period of gestation and hands it over to the intended parents after delivery. A traditional surrogate is actually the biological mother of the baby since her egg was fertilized with the father’s sperm. In case the father’s sperm is not suitable for fertilization, fertility experts may use donor sperm to inseminate the egg.

Gestational Surrogate

Gestational surrogates are the ones who carry the embryo once introduced to her womb after “in vitro fertilization” (IVF). The eggs are collected from the mother and fertilized with the father’s sperm externally in the laboratory to form the embryo and later placed in the uterus of a gestational surrogate.

Surrogates and Weight

There are various steps surrogates can take to get better physical and mental health before pregnancy. The key is to get to and keep up a solid weight normally. Crash weight control plans or starvation strategies ought not to be utilized, as they put extra weight on the body and can bring about more medical issues.

Surrogate’s BMI

A surrogate mother is expected to have a BMI of 33 on an average. BMI over 35 is considered to fall under Class II Obesity and can two-fold increase the time to conception. Also, women with a BMI less than 19 are not suitable to serve as surrogate mothers as such BMI can take up to four times longer for her to conceive.

We are all aware of the fact that surrogacy involves a little more expenses than the usual fertility treatments. Hence, an extended time to conception in surrogacy involves more time, money, and emotional expenditure for the aspiring parents as well as the surrogate. It is always a wise step to screen the BMI of the gestational carrier to avoid any potential complications in the future course of the in-vitro fertilization process.

IVF clinics take good care of the surrogate’s BMI as abnormal BMI might give rise to risks of developing diabetes during the pregnancy. She is taken through a series of recommended test programs based on criteria related to parameters like weight and height.

The current health and readiness of the surrogate in context of the IVF program are observed by the doctor before passing her for the medical test. All the reports related to the health condition of the surrogate enables the doctor to make the final decision of initiating the program.

Apart from all the medical test, the surrogate must pay regular visits to the doctor in order to check up on her endometrium growth and endometrium lining. These examinations help to ascertain the readiness of the surrogate to accept the embryos. Her height and weight also is a crucial factor in deciding her final participation in the program apart from her hormonal status and medical data.

Why does BMI Matter?

BMI is one of the most reliable indicators of possible complications in the woman that might hinder the surrogacy process. Surrogacy is a very delicate procedure that is required to be conducted with minimum potential risks involved. Women with a normal BMI are able to carry the gestation healthily and deliver without any complications.

Too High BMI

Women with higher BMI than the average usually take a longer period to become pregnant. Women with higher BMI level than 35 take almost double the time to become pregnant. At the same time, underweight women also suffer from this delay in getting pregnant due to lower BMI.

Women with higher BMI are more prone to gestational diabetes. However any woman is prone to the seasonal diabetes irrespective offer BMI level, but women with higher BMI levels are almost three times more inclined towards such syndrome.

Women with higher BMI level are likely to have high blood pressure. They can have issues regarding controlling their blood pressure for the entire duration of the pregnancy. Risk related to preeclampsia increases in women with a BMI of 35 or more. The infant has a higher chance of suffering from various defects. High birth weight, unsuccessful labor, stillbirth, and birth imperfection rates are above average when the pregnant woman has a high BMI: BMI.

Labor can be more complicated for overweight surrogates as the gestation tends to be longer. Because of the bigger size of the infant, there’s an expanded risk for C-section and higher possibility of anaesthesia entanglements or that the surrogate will suffer from haemorrhage.

We work with a few diverse reproductive endocrinologists. These specialists look after IVF cases each day, and most are known as pioneers in the field. These specialists have the flexibility to set their own surrogate BMI limits. We work to locate a surrogate match with the best possible BMI necessities for every doctor’s protocol.

When in doubt, no specialist works without routinely acknowledging a surrogate with a BMI of more than 33. Consequently, we won’t enable a potential surrogate to go through the application procedure while having a BMI more than 34.9. We permit this higher number for the application procedure for a better rate of success. The comprehension is that the surrogate candidate will start attempting to securely lose the fundamental weight to achieve a 33.9 BMI when she is prepared to be screened. To be clear, a surrogate won’t have the capacity to move ahead with screening, coordinating, or implantation of the embryo until the point when she achieves a BMI of 33.9 or underneath.

It is for the health of both the surrogate and the baby that we as a surrogacy agency concede to the surrogate BMI limits set by the experts with whom our intended parents work. While a few specialists will acknowledge up to a 33 BMI, others require much lower BMI numbers, with a few specialists just ready to work with a surrogate having a 30 or lower BMI.

While these breaking points may appear to be cold and indifferent, they are set considering the well-being of everybody included in the IVF cycle. These points are not intended to make any surrogate feel badly about her body or to hamper her mental peace. We comprehend that a surrogate can have an intricacy-free pregnancy while keeping up a BMI more than 33. We additionally comprehend that intended parents have an abundance of data readily available revealing to them that a BMI more than 33 can be unsafe. Hence, intended parents need to take every precaution possible in order to be successful in their surrogacy process.