| Surrogacy is generally a medical practice, even | | | | between mother and child. |
| though some legal squabbles could also turn it into a | | | | The delivery should then be attended to just like any |
| legal matter. The general bulk of the procedure is | | | | other delivery, with a full team of doctors, nurses, |
| purely medical. The role of the intended couple, the | | | | and other medical professionals to assist in the whole |
| surrogate, and the agency has been discussed at | | | | procedure. Once the baby is born it would be the |
| length in other articles already. But we often overlook | | | | hospital's responsibility to put identifiers to the baby. |
| what the role of the hospital is in this whole process | | | | This is a little bit more complicated than usual births |
| especially in the delivery process. | | | | since there are 2 sets of parents; the surrogate |
| The hospital plays a very major role in every | | | | mother, and the intended couple. Hospitals have |
| surrogate pregnancy. Although the IVF (In Vitro | | | | created a method to deal with these new set of |
| Fertilization) is done in some clinic, most of the testing | | | | challenges. They created a method called double |
| and ultrasound scanning would probably occur inside | | | | banding. Instead of tying 1 band around the baby's |
| the hospital. This is not the biggest part the hospital | | | | arm, they tie two. One is for the surrogate mother |
| plays in a surrogate pregnancy though. That occurs | | | | and other for the names that appear in the pre-birth |
| when the surrogate mother is about to deliver the | | | | order, which has been secured by the surrogacy |
| baby. | | | | agency from the court. |
| There should already be word sent ahead of the | | | | The baby is then taken away into the nursery so |
| arrival of the surrogate mother and that this is a | | | | that it can undergo the proper tests necessary for a |
| surrogate birth. That should already have been | | | | newborn baby. After this, follows a more or less |
| handled by the surrogacy agency that handled this | | | | standard procedure with the surrogacy agency taking |
| woman's pregnancy. The hospital would then seek to | | | | care of the extra paperwork needed to facilitate the |
| inform the intended parents of the impending birth | | | | custody of the baby and taking care of the |
| just to make sure that they know. Although, in most | | | | surrogate mother to make sure that all her needs are |
| cases the surrogacy agency itself is responsible | | | | met. |
| enough to do this on their own and the intended | | | | Having a surrogacy pregnancy can be long and |
| couple also arrives with the surrogate mother. This is | | | | difficult, but everyone has a role to play in this |
| because the intended couple would usually want to | | | | struggle to provide a loving couple the child that they |
| take part in their baby's birth. Even if it is not the | | | | have always wanted. The hospital is just another |
| mother herself who is giving birth, the experience can | | | | member of the team that made all this possible. |
| still create a lasting memory and a special bond | | | | |